MAN 
MORAL AND PHYSICAL: 

OR THE 

INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

ON 

RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 

BY THE , 
Rev. JOSEPH H; v JONES, D. D. 

PASTOR OF THE SIXTH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA. 

Non ignara mali miseris succurrere disco. 

3 Aduvarov, xaxcoz ^ U X^ ^X°^ a7 i^f 
Mrj ob xal acofxa auzfj ouvoiaztv. 




PHILADELPHIA: 

WILLIAM S. & ALFRED M AR TIEN 
606 CHESTNUT STREET. 
1860. 



6 



Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by 

JOSEPH H. JONES, 

In the Office of the Clerk of the District Court for the Eastern 
District of Pennsylvania. 



ERRATA. 

On page 42, line tenth from top, for Aretoeus read Aretceus. 
On page 112, line sixth from top, for passis read possis. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 



Connection between the Material and Spiritual 
parts in Man — David's language concerning his fear- 
ful and wonderful make, supported by the researches of 
physiology — The connection between the body and soul 
of man as inexplicable as the mystery of the Trinity — 
We know nothing of the substance of which either is 
composed — The attempts of science to explain these ulti- 
mate facts a failure — Much that is written concerning 
the soul no more than speculation — Remark of Dr. Aber- 
crombie — We know only a few facts in relation to either 
mind or matter — Nervous system, the medium of com- 
munication between them — The subject blends with all 
that conduces to the enjoyment and usefulness of life — 
What is proposed in the present treatise — A book of the 
kind called for by the exigencies of the Church — Nu- 
merous works exhibit the subject in its pathological 
bearings, or as a department of physiology — Intended to 
be a portable tract for Christians of unequal and fluctua- 
ting experience — The nerves, how they are the channels 
of communication between the mind and the body — 



iv 



CONTENTS. 



Their branches or ramifications have a sort of omnipre- 
sence in the animal fabric — Sympathy and sympathetic 
nerve — What constitutes the nervous system — No per- 
ceptible change in the size, colour, or shape of the 
nerves when diseased — Nature of the nervous force — 
Not identical with electricity — How the communion be- 
tween the brain, spinal marrow, and nerves is effected, 
we do not know — Not necessary to our happiness to 
know the essence of mind and matter — The morbid re- 
sults of the union of the two, called " nervous," a penalty 
for this abuse of the blessings of civilized life — Nervous 
diseases little known among savages — Medicine not ex- 
tensively cultivated among the ancients— Less occasion 
for the study and practice — How far was the great age 
of man, originally, the result of physical causes — Dr. 
Cheyne's opinion of the effect of luxurious, intemperate, 
and licentious habits — The records of prisons and alms- 
houses — Idiotic in a Massachusetts' Charity — Juvenile 
delinquents at Parkhurst, England — Remark of Mr. 
Coleridge. Pages 13—23. 

I. The Sacred Writings — The comparative silence of the 
Scriptures on the subject easily accounted for — Modern 
discoveries of physiology not found in the Bible, but exem- 
plifications of their truth in the experience and exercises 
of the religious — The case of Saul — of David, as ex- 
hibited in many of his psalms — Of the disciples in the 
garden of Gethsemane — The Apostle Paul — Quotations 
from serious minded heathen by the Fathers — Cicero on 
human nature — Mixture of Christianity and Persian 
philosophy in the system of the Manicheans of the third 
century. Pages 23 — 27. 



CONTENTS. 



II. The Testimony of Science — Connection between the 
material and spiritual parts implied in the abuses of 
science — Made the basis of materialism under the form 
of cranioscopy, phrenology, &c. — The system of Law- 
rence — The human frame made a barrel-organ — Such 
sentiments at variance with sound science — Discoveries 
concerning the whole internal apparatus of the body. 
Pages 27—31. 

The Brain — -Soldier at the battle of Waterloo — Patient of 
Sir Astley Cooper — of Dr. Caldwell — Size of the human 
brain — of Lord Byron's — Baron Cuvier's — of Bona- 
parte's — -Case of Dean Swift — -Conceit of some physiolo- 
gists—of Descartes — We do not know how the power of 
thought is originated. Pages 31 — 35. 

The Stomach— Its connection with the mind — Appetite 
affected by the states of the mind — King Lear — Dr. 
Brigham — ^Cardinal Woolsey and Henry VIII. — The 
stomach reacts upon the mind — Dyspepsia supposed to 
be a disease of the brain— Aristotle and the hypochon- 
driacs of his day. Pages 35 — 38. 

The Lungs and Heart — -Affected by the brain. Pages 
38, 39. 

The Liver — The uses of this organ — Its influence on 
the temperament, mental functions, &c. — The story of 
Tityus — V ersion of Lucretius, Hippocrates, Galen, Are- 
taeus — -Their use of the term "melancholy." Pp. 39-42. 

The Spleen — The use of this spongy viscus — Opinions of 
Dr. Good and Archdeacon Paley — -Remarks of a lady of 
genius and accomplishments on the subject of hepatic 
influence. Pages 42 — 45. 

Love — Power of the passion — Antioehus and Stratonice. 
Page 45. 



Vi 



CONTENTS. 



Hope — Its connection with the success of surgical opera- 
tions and the results of medicine — Battle of Mincio in 
1859 — The French, Sardinians, and Austrians — Patient 
of Dr. Rush — Parke, the traveller. Pages 45 — 48. 

Fear — Experiment in Russia on four murderers — Exemp- 
tion of the inmates of Cherry Hill prison from cholera 
during its prevalence — Immunity of physicians from 
attacks of disease — Curative efficacy of fear — Cases men- 
tioned by Drs. Batchelder, Rush, and Boerhaave— Pre- 
vention of the monomania called by Dr. Moore the 
" fashionable apology for murder'' — Case of a man in 
New Hampshire — The effect of the teachings of Brous- 
sais — Case of Dr. Hunter — Corvisart's lectures on the 
heart, at Paris — Opinion of Testa — Disease of the heart 
common in times of political agitation — France at the 
time of the Revolution — Case recorded in the French 
Journal of Medicine — Hair on half the head of a patient 
in Pennsylvania Hospital whitened by fear — Whole head 
of Marie Antoinette made white by the same cause — 
Case of a Sepoy of the Bengal army mentioned in the 
London Medical Times, 1858 — Of the young men at- 
tempting to rob an eagle's nest — The young gambler at 
San Francisco. Pages 48 — 55. 

Grief — Description of it by Father Chrysostom — Melanc- 
thon — Philip V. of Spain — Dr. Zimmermann's opinion 
of the cause of his death — Dr. Johnson — Metaphorical 
expression " broken heart/' sometimes pathologically cor- 
rect. Pages 55, 56. 

J oy — A woman in the city of New York — Cases of Sopho- 
cles, Chilo, Juventius, Talma, and Fouquet. Pages 
56, 57. 

Chagrin, or Shame — Story told by the Rev. Daniel 
Baker. Page 57. 



CONTENTS. 



Physical effects of a morbid imitative Sympathy, 
and of Imagination — Rev. Dr. Davidson's History of 
the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky — His account of 
the " bodily exercises'' which attended revivals of reli- 
gion — The falling, rolling, running, dancing, barking, 
and jerking exercises — Account of the Jerks — Bodily 
exercises in Ireland — Account of Rev. Dr. Macnaugh- 
ton — Power of imagination exemplified in the records of 
empiricism — Metallic tractors" — Wooden tractors of 
Dr. Haygarth — Dr. Woodhouse and nitrous oxide — Bar- 
tholini, a physician of Copenhagen, 1616 — Dr. Franciscus 
Borri, of Milan — Case of a Neapolitan merchant men- 
tioned by Gregorius Leti in his history of the Duke 
D'Ossuna — Selden's " Table-Talk" — Case of a gentleman 
cured by a card wrapped in taffeta — -The reflected in- 
fluences of the mind and the body too little understood — 
The subject a branch of Moral Therapeutics of great 
importance to those who are charged with the health 
of either the body or the soul. Pages 57 — 68. 

III. Christian Experience- — Religious frames closely 
allied to what is called the u constitution" — Idiosyncra- 
sies of nature not merged in grace — Remark of the 
astrologers concerning Cyrus — Example of Simon Peter — 
of Paul and John — of Melancthon — of Martin Luther — 
Rev. Timothy Rogers — Christianity made to suffer from 
the physical sufferings of its professors — Their spiritual 
fluctuations produced by physical causes — Rev. Dr. J. 
R. McDuff — Dr. Francia — Case mentioned by Dr. Spen- 
cer, of Brooklyn — Case of Rev. Mr. Cecil — Rev. Dr. 
James Hall, of North Carolina — A venerable clergyman 
lately deceased — Dean Milner — Richard Baxter — Dr. 
Payson — David Brainerd, and the poet Cowper* Pages 
68—96. 



viii 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER II. 

Uses of Knowledge on the subject — Remark of Rev. 
Dr. A. Alexander concerning young preachers — Rev. 
Mr. Greenham's sentiments. Pages 97—100. 

Doctrine — Subject profitable for — President Edwards' 
remarks concerning Brainerd — Case of Dr. Rush — His 
Essay on the Influence of Physical Causes on the Moral 
Faculty — Rev. Thomas Boston — His " Crook in the 
Lot" — Dr. Alexander's opinion of the work — Extract 
from a preacher's diary— Case of Rev. Dr. Thomas 
Scott — of Rev. Andrew Fuller — of Dr. Madan and Cow- 
per — Censure of physicians by the Secretary of the 
Royal Academy of Medicine in Paris. Pages 100 — 406. 

Charity — Subject profitable for — -The melancholy claim 
our condolence — Are not to be treated with levity or 
ridicule — Dr. John Cheyne's description of nervous dis- 
eases — The sufferings which they cause inconceivable to 
any who do not know them by experience — Such suf- 
ferers not to be rebuked with severity — Rev. Mr. Dod — • 
Rev. Timothy Rogers — £ The power of kind words. Pages 
106—112. 

Useful for Reproof and Correction-— It explodes the 
popular error of ascribing certain disordered states of 
the mind to the influence of religion — -Testimony of 
Rev. Dr. Archibald Alexander — Insane monks in France 
before the Revolution — Mental disorder caused by epi- 
demical delusions — Dr. George Moore, member of the 
Royal College of Physicians in London — His opinion on 
the alleged influences of religion in producing insanity — 
Of Rev. Dr. Ashbel Green — Of Doctors Abercrombie, 
Burrowes, John Cheyne, and Combe — Dr. James John- 



CONTENTS. 



IX 



son's remark on the subject — Patient of Dr. Kirkbride 
in the Pennsylvania Hospital — Four cases of mental dis- 
order within the sphere of the author's pastoral expe- 
rience — The mistake of imputing to Satanic agency what 
is dependent on bodily disease — Case of the wife of 
Rev. John Newton — Case of John Bunyan — of Martin 
Luther — Opinion of Richard Baxter — Injurious influ- 
ence on the mind ascribed to Calvinism — Opinion of a 
writer in the Encj^clopedia Britannica — of Esquirol — 
Macaulay — Haley's insinuation in relation to Cowper 
unwarranted — Judicious remark of Dr. Cheyne — Case of 
an injured wife in London. Pages 112 — 131. 
Use for Consolation — Doctrine of physical influences 
liable to be perverted — It suggests many questions not 
to be solved by referring them to conscience — Case of a 
young man preparing for the ministry — Of others who 
had made whimsical vows — How far the exercises of 
Christians in their morbid states are moral, a very per- 
plexing question — Moral qualities hereditary — Opinion 
of Dr. Rush — An innate tendency to evil not an apology 
for yielding to the inclination — How the doctrine is a 
source of relief — Exclamations of a soul in giving vent 
to its spiritual anguish — Case of a clergyman in New 
England — Gloominess consistent with a regenerate state — 
An opinion from the highest medical authority — Obser- 
vation of Mr. Pearson in his life of Mr. Hay — The 
Saviour's declaration — Payson's Biography — Private dia- 
ries of Christians — Error in publishing Cowper's during 
the period of his gloomy aberration — The doctrine of 
physical influences not to be used as an excuse for wilful 
delinquency — If rightly considered, may minister relief 
and make us watchful — Extract from Mason's Spiritual 
Treasury. Pages 131 — 143. 



X 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER III. 

Temptations of Desponding Christians — Reproof of 
the Apostle James — Morbid physical influences often 
erroneously ascribed to Satan. Page 144. 

Christians tempted to believe that they have 
committed the sin against the Holy Ghost — 
Opinions of Father Austin, of the fourth century, con- 
cerning this sin — Of the schoolmen of the Middle 
Ages — Of Calvin — Arminius — Dr. Chalmers — These 
fears may be indications only of imperfect bodily health — 
Mr. Kemper — A young man twelve years under the 
impression that he had committed this sin — Dr. Ridgley's 
opinion — Rev. Daniel Baker's case. Pages 145 — 151. 

Tempted to adopt a false standard oe Duty, and 
ambiguous evidences of a regenerate state — 
Like the Jews, they look for "signs" — Many distressed 
or misled by the sudden occurrence to their mind of an 
" alarming text of Scripture" — Case of Mr. Lackington — 
Others tempted to trust in "dreams" — The character of 
our dreams depends much on our physical condition — 
Case of Baron Trenck — of Condorcet — Coleridge — Presi- 
dent Edwards — Not denied that God may reveal Himself 
through supernatural dreams— Case of a young lady in 
England — Cases mentioned by Dr. Abercrombie — Shak- 
speare's theory — Queen Mab. Pages 151 — 159. 

Christians of a nervous temperament make too 
much of Religious Frames — Mr. Brownlow North — 
Case of a female mentioned by him — Example of Mrs. 
Hawkes — Rev. J. Newton's remark — Letter of Rev. 
Mr. Cecil. Pages 159—163. 



CONTENTS. 



XI 



Mental Introspection — Remark of Rev. Mr. Spencer — 
Indulging in melancholy meditation does no good — Dr. 
Chalmers' letter to Mr. Anderson. Pages 163 — 167. 

Temptation to "make an idol of comfort" — Obser- 
vations of Dr. Harris — Many mistake an abatement of 
comfort for its removal — Christians often make the same 
mistake as did the sons of Zebedee — Extract from Wil- 
liam Mason. Pages 167 — 170. 

Temptation to Despair — The climax of morbid spiritual 
disquiet — in most cases evidently the result of bodily 
disease — Apt to be promoted and nurtured by perverted 
views of truth — Some morbid Christians afraid to pray — 
Others fear that they have eaten and drunk damnation 
to themselves — Case of an interesting female — Distress 
caused by endeavouring to harmonize the decrees of God 
and his foreknowledge with free agency — Such cases 
closely analogous to the temptations of those who imagine 
themselves guilty of the unpardonable sin — Persons ex- 
posed to this temptation are apt to neglect the means of 
grace — Despair never made a human being better — Re- 
markable case mentioned by Rev. Mr. Spencer. Pages 
170—177. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Counsels to the Troubled and Desponding — Book 
not written for medical men — Why the subject of this 
volume not more frequently treated in later times — 
Prominency given it in the older English writers — Re- 
mark of Dr. Cheyne on the ignorance of many religious 
men of the influence of physical causes on their spiritual 
enjoyment. Pages 178 — 180. 



xii 



CONTENTS. 



Desponding Christians should ascertain the cause 
or their religious disquietude — Baxter's opinion — 
Should not chide themselves for faults which are charge- 
able to bodily disease — Counsel on this subject attended 
with more or less danger — Many of our sorrows of soul 
retributory, and we are only made to possess the iniquities 
of our youth — The subject guarded against perversion — 
Remark of Dr. A. Alexander — Some predisposed to think 
that their gloom proceeds from a culpable cause — In- 
quiries into our personal state should be pursued dili- 
gently — Despondency may be produced by false views of 
religion, or it may cause them — Not always easy to deter- 
mine which is cause and which effect— A good rule for 
guiding the judgment — Religious vapours. Pages 180 — 
186. 

The desponding should avail themselves of judi- 
cious Medical Advice — Case of Dr. Rush — Baxter's 
counsel — What a well instructed physician can do — 
Every physician not competent to treat the cases of the 
desponding — Physicians often betray a culpable igno- 
rance of the reciprocating relationship between body and 
mind — Book of the heart — Sentiments of an eminent 
lecturer in a medical school — Advice of Mr. Rogers — 
Change in the character of diseases in later years — 
Nervous diseases the most numerous — Sydenham's esti- 
mate of fevers at the close of the seventeenth century; 
Dr. Cheyne's of nervous disorders; Dr. Trotter's — 
Deaths in England during 1856 — No opinion expressed 
as to the accuracy of these computations — They show 
that the subject of nervous disorders importunately de- 
mands the attention of physicians — A morbid mental 
state often removed by a drug — -Case of a lady in Phila- 



CONTENTS. 



xiii 



delphia — Another mentioned by Rev. M. B. Hope, M. D. 
— The poet Dryden — Descartes — Plutarch's saying, Not 
tamper with drugs — Case of Rousseau. Pages 186—200. 

The desponding should seek suitable society — Re- 
mark of Mr. Locke — Story of Caesar — Proverb of Solo- 
mon — Often good to compare exercises — -Hard to dis- 
abuse the mind of the desponding of their erroneous 
opinions concerning their state — Remark of Mr. Rogers — 
Mr. Robert Bruce, of Edinburgh, relieved after having 
been twenty years in terror of conscience — Such sufferers 
do not receive sufficient sympathy — Captain Benjamin 
Wickes, of Philadelphia, and Rev. Joseph Eastburn — 
Cowper and the Unwins — One of four cardinal rules — 
Company of cheerful Christians recommended to the 
melancholy — xlvoid that of the gloomy — Dr. Hufeland's 
opinion — Counsel of Dr. Everard Mayn waring in his 
Tutela Sanitatis — Advice of Seneca — Teachings of St. 
Paul —Compare our state with that of others in a condi- 
tion far less desirable —Two cases mentioned by Dr. 
Hall — A lady helpless by palsy — Archdeacon Paley on 
the goodness of God — Digestion aided by laughter — 
Solomon on cheerfulness. Pages 200 — 211. 

Those who would enjoy spiritual comfort should 
be Temperate — Dr. Johnson's opinion of water — Hip- 
pocrates — Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy — Dr. Rush 
on the effect of diet on the moral faculties — Dr. Paris 
on animal food — Dr. McNish, of Glasgow — The effect of 
living solely on beef— Hon. C. A. Murray — Dr. Arbuth- 
not on vegetable regimen — Payson's excessive absti- 
nence — Nervous disease caused by excess — Dr. Combe's 
opinion — An eminent physician of London on the effects 
of the luxurious habits of the people— Persons subject 
1 



xiv 



CONTENTS. 



to nervous depression should give special attention to 
the subject of dietetic economy — The spiritual man 
should keep his body under— -How far a healthy appetite 
may be indulged — Dr. Holland's three rules — Remarks 
of Dr. Hall — of Dr. J. Johnson — His rule for regulating 
the appetite —President Edwards — Latin distich. Pages 
211 222. 

The desponding should be habitually occupied — 
The mind should be employed— Diseases often caused 
and increased by habitually thinking of them — The phi- 
losopher Kant — A man retiring from business — Quota- 
tion from Cecil — Persons not made more religious by a 
constant thinking on religion — The pious man should 
have but one dominant motive — Another rule for the 
relief of melancholy Christians — Tendency of ministers 
in their sine titulo condition — Remark of Dr. Ashbel 
Green — Brooding over our spiritual maladies — Cowper's 
translating Homer and Madame Gruyon — Johnson's ad- 
vice to Boswell — His translation of Thuanus — Panacea 
for the taedium vitse — Case of a fellow student — Of Dr. 
Lobdell — Activity in promoting the welfare of others — 
Harlan Page — Self-denial — Difficulty of complying with 
these counsels — Trying case of clergymen in declining 
health, especially in advanced life — Casus omissus. 
Pages 222—232. 

Watch and promote Bodily Health — The special 
counsel of Dr. J. W. Alexander — Importance of a scru- 
pulous attention to this advice — Connection between our 
emotions of joy and sorrow and our health — Sine animo 
corpus, &c. — Authors on the subject of promoting health, 
numerous — Recapitulation of some of the instructions in 
the preceding pages. Pages 232 — 234. 



CONTENTS, 



XV 



Due discrimination and self-control in relation 
to our Food — Plutarch and the Boeotians — Richard 
Cumberland. Pages 234, 235. 

Sufficient rest, and at the proper seasons — Des- 
pondency caused by study at unseasonable hours — The 
effect as stated by Dr. Johnson — Manual for the Ner- 
vous — Case of a theological student— Rev. Dr. Samuel 
Miller on night study — M. Guizot, Minister of Louis 
Philippe — Henry Kirke White — Urquhart — Henry Mar- 
tyn. Pages 235—238. 

Injurious effects of narcotics — Tobacco — Cowper 
and Rev. Mr. Bull, of Newport-Pagnell — "Counter-blast 
to Tobacco of King James the First" — Edict in the time 
of Elizabeth — Dr. Dunglison — M. Bouisson — Letters on 
Clerical Habits and Manners — Excessive use of tobacco 
by theological students — Its manifold injurious effects — 
Not easily persuaded of their danger — Ought not to be 
taken at all, or if ever necessary, in small quantities, and 
as seldom as possible — The practice a trespass against 
our neighbour — Some who use it a trouble to themselves 
and to everybody else — A special case — The fact a me- 
lancholy one — Its great havoc of life, especially in Ger- 
many — Its injurious influences on the mind, causing 
melancholy, and sometimes insanity — Alcoholic drinks, 
and stimulating or stupefying drugs — Opinions of Doc- 
tors Good, Cullin, and Moore. Pages 238 — 247. 

Exercise in Pure Air — Tendency of the depressing pas- 
sions to render us inert and taciturn — The present trea- 
tise not an attempt to give all the counsels which are so 
accessible in standard authors — Opinion of one of the 
most eminent — A "moral atmosphere" not altogether a 
figure of speech — Dr. Hall — Utility of exercise under- 



xvi 



CONTENTS. 



stood by literary men — " Peter's Letters to his Kins- 
folk" — Advice of Horace to Virgil — The men whom 
"Peter" speaks of, and their mode of taking exercise — 
Counsel of one restored from prolonged melancholy. 
Pages 247—252. 
Dr. N. L. Rice on Ministerial Depression— Daniel 
- Baker's remark— All ministers cannot apply it to them- 
selves — Many have seasons of mental depression, pro- 
duced by various causes — How their depression ope- 
rates — Suggestions not to attempt mental labour while it 
continues — If necessary to preach, select a subject which 
demands intellectual effort — How they should commence 
their discourse — Not come to any new conclusions, nor 
change their plan while under mental depression — We 
should make no attempt to reason persons out of their 
gloomy mood — Case of a minister from Virginia — The 
" blues" — Timely rest and diversion — Dr. Alexander's 
" Thoughts on Religious Experience" — Importance of 
special watchfulness and prayer against melancholy in 
the decline of life — Cases of two persons mentioned by 
Dr. A. Alexander. Pages 252—260. 
Let the desponding look to Christ — Rev. Mr. Ro- 
gers — We must distinguish between our justification and 
our sanctification — Between the effects of faith and faith 
itself — Our sanctification full of imperfection, but the 
righteousness of Christ, on which we rely for justifica- 
tion, is perfect — Dr. Church, President of a Medical 
Society — His opinion on the efficacy of faith in the cure 
of diseases — Opinion of Dr. Bell — Mr. Shrubsole's ac- 
count of himself in his Christian Memoirs — Rev. Dr. 
Ashbel Green on excluding ministers from the chamber 
of the sick — Concurring sentiments of Doctor Rush — 



CONTENTS. 



xvii 



Dr. Rush's view of the moral and religious qualifications 
necessary for a physician — Cures performed by faith and 
hope — Rev. Mr. Rogers' restoration in answer to prayer — 
His book a monument of his deliverance — A prevailing 
temptation of desponding Christians to look to themselves 
and their fluctuating frames — Like the Israelite in the 
wilderness, depending on the strength of his constitution 
instead of looking to the brazen image — Baxter, for 
many years, in great perplexity about his own spiritual 
state — Remark of his biographer, Orme — All hope of 
the guilty creature is exterior to himself — The gospel is 
the balm of Gilead, and Christ the only Physician — 
These sentiments cannot be repeated too often — God can 
as easily forgive a thousand sins as one — Poring upon 
ourselves increases our troubles — " Apt to think we could 
go to Christ were we so and so" — Not forget the pro- 
mised help of the Holy Spirit — Watch against a com- 
mon sin of the desponding — Assurance does not imply 
that we are free from sin — Remark of Thomas Adam — 
The despondency and gloom of the pious, a mystery of 
Providence — Rutherford's remark — No more difficulty 
in the abandonment of good men to despondency pro- 
duced by a physical cause, than in their being the victim 
of any other natural evil — No promise of the Bible that 
insures them against such a trial — Job's history moni- 
tory — Cowper's mental darkness did not militate with 
the Divine goodness — Affliction used by God to try and 
manifest the graces of his people — Instrumental in 
qualifying religious teachers for greater usefulness — 
Rods of God sharp, but " dipped in honey" — Remarks 
of Mr. Rogers on the subject — The new creature raised 
out of the ruins of the flesh — God's providence will turn 

1* 



XV111 



CONTENTS. 



our water into wine, &c. — Dr. Watts's remarks on the 
disappointments of heaven — The imperfect sanctification 
of Christians on the near approach of death, a subject 
of perplexity to many — An enigma to Dr. Guthrie — His 
proposed solution. Pages 260 — 279. 



PREFACE. 



A devout physician once told a friend of the 
writer, that " he never knew a triumphant 
death when the disease of the pious patient 
was below the diaphragm." This remark may 
be taken in a broader sense than its author 
intended, and from which w r e should earnestly 
dissent; but it recognizes a power of our 
bodily maladies to control and pervert the 
healthful functions of the mind, which none 
are more concerned to know than they who 
have the cure of souls. Within the range of 
almost every pastor's charge of moderate ex- 
tent, cases of spiritual distress are occurring 
to which he can minister no relief; they lie 
beyond the reach of any remedies to which he 
can resort. The latent cause is the morbid 
condition of the physical part, which brings 
them legitimately within the province of the 
physician. On the other hand, the instances 



8 



PREFACE. 



are scarcely less multiplied, in which all the 
science and skill of the healing art are impo- 
tent, till the thorn is extracted from the con- 
science. The influence of physical agents on 
moral states, moreover, is too little understood 
or heeded by the instructors of our children. 
They do not sufficiently consider the connec- 
tion between intellect and morality, or between 
sensation and thought. "The study and the 
statistics of mental disease teach a fearful les- 
son concerning the giant evils resulting from 
ignorant mismanagement of the body in rela- 
tion to the mind and the moral nature." 

It has been intimated by judicious friends, 
that our smaller work on this subject first pub- 
lished, would have been made more instructive 
and extensively useful by a considerable ampli- 
fication. The last two letters that we ever 
received from our lamented friend and corres- 
pondent, Dr. James W. Alexander, related 
mainly to its reproduction and enlargement 
"on several points," which he thought "should 
be treated more fully." None of all our friends 
ever expressed a deeper interest in the subject 
of this book, nor helped us more by their 
counsel, than the late Doctors Alexander, both 
father and son. The removal of the former, 



PREFACE. 



9 



like a shock of com in his season, though caus- 
ing wide spread sorrow, did not take us by 
surprise. , 

Multis ille bonis flebilis, occidit ; 
Nulli flebilior, quam mihi. 

The death of the latter, in his full strength, 
and at the time of so great and increasing 
usefulness, was painfully abrupt, and seemed 
to be premature. He was taken from a large 
circle of admirers, whose memory lingers on 
their irreparable loss, with the mournful reflec- 
tion expressed in that " exquisite inscription 
of Shenstone's," whose aroma no translation 
can preserve, 

Heu! quanto minus est cum reliquis versari, quam tui meminisse! 

They almost forget the living in their reminis- 
cences of the dead. 

We have so far respected the suggestions of 
our advisers as to add to what was presented in 
the prior edition many interesting facts, which, 
however familiar to persons conversant with 
the standard works on Physiology and Hy- 
giene, will be new to others. Changes have 
been made in other respects by additions and 
various modifications, especially under the heads 
of Temptations and Counsels, which have ma- 



10 



PREFACE. 



terially increased its size, and made it more 
conducive to the purpose for which it was 
written. The author makes no pretension to 
originality or deep thinking, nor to such an 
acquaintance with psychology, or physical 
science, as a more thorough and enlightened 
discussion of the subject requires. So far as 
the thoughts of others have been approved, 
and were adapted to the purpose of the writer, 
they have been adopted, often in their own 
language, and are here acknowledged in gene- 
ral, to supersede the necessity of multiplied 
marginal references and marks of quotation. 
The authors of certain well-written papers on 
subjects kindred to this, in the Literary and 
Theological Review, the Biblical Repertory, 
and Christian Spectator, will perceive our obli- 
gations to them. Doctors George and John 
Cheyne, Combe, Good, Moore, Broussais, Bur- 
rows, Rush, Dunglison, Brigham, Hall, and Es- 
quirol, have been consulted, especially Dr. James 
Johnson, justly called "the ablest and most 
effective writer of the age on every subject to 
which his attention was directed." Little is 
left for a successor to glean in any field of 
medical research after having been reaped by 
him. We have also had much assistance from 



PREFACE. 



11 



" the soundest and ablest medical periodical 
in the English language" — the Medico-Chirur- 
gical Review. As reference will be found in 
the present work to certain writers on subjects 
akin to that of which it treats, we give the 
titles of a few r for the guidance of any who may 
have leisure and inclination to read them. In 
addition to those already named, we would 
mention Pritchard, Pinel, Prout ; Voison on the 
Moral and Physical Causes of Mental Mala- 
dies ; Tissot on the Health of Men of Letters ; 
Hitchcock's Lectures on Diet, Regimen, and 
Employment; Shepherd's Sincere Convert; and 
Robe on Religious Melancholy. Most of these, 
of course, view the subject of which they treat, 
as philosophers or men of science; but those 
who have access to the older English divines 
will find that questions of casuistry, spiritual 
troubles, evidences of grace, &c, are discussed 
with great ability, and are made far more pro- 
minent and important in them than they are 
in the theological works of times more modern. 
The writings of the Rev. Timothy Rogers, 
several times quoted in the ensuing pages, 
are peculiarly instructive to persons labouring 
under spiritual distress, as having been dic- 
tated by his own experience. Those who can- 



12 



PREFACE. 



not get this rare book will find a choice 
sample of its counsels in the fourth chapter of 
Dr. Archibald Alexander's "Thoughts on Re- 
ligious Experience." From this interesting 
work, as well as from the "Discourse of Mr. 
Rogers on Trouble of Mind and the Disease 
of Melancholy," we have received important 
aid. 

The writer has been gratified with the 
favour shown to his imperfect treatise by the 
press, both secular and religious; and espe- 
cially with testimonials, through private chan- 
nels, that it has proved useful in ministering 
relief to some of that class for whom it was 
principally designed. That the same benefi- 
cent results may follow this enlarged edition 
is the sincere desire of the author, as it ought 
to be his paramount motive in preparing it for 
publication. 



MAN, MORAL AND PHYSICAL. 



CHAPTER I. 

CONNECTION BETWEEN THE MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL PARTS IN MAN. 

How poor, how rich, how abject, how august, 
How complicate, how wonderful is man! — Young. 

"I will praise Thee," says David, "for I am 
fearfully and wonderfully made." How far 
the Psalmist understood the full import of his 
words, or was acquainted with the wonderful 
mechanism of man to which he alludes, we do 
not presume to know. It is enough to say, 
that the terms which he uses are most appro- 
priate and descriptive, as has been abundantly 
proved by the researches of physiology. But 
curious and fearful as is the structure of the 
material part, there is displayed far more of the 
wisdom and greatness of God in the creation 
and endowments of the soul ; and although we 
are accustomed to speak familiarly of both, as 
2 



14 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

if they were well understood, yet there is 
scarcely a term which we employ which is not 
rather a symbol of what we do not know, than 
an exponent of what we do. The mystery of 
the Trinity is not more inexplicable than is 
the connection that subsists between the body 
and the soul of man. The most that we know 
of either, is derived from the results which 
flow from such an union. As we infer the 
being and co-operation of the three persons in 
the Godhead, from the nature and the benefits 
of redemption, by which this triune existence 
is implied, so we become assured that we have 
a spirit as well as a body, from their acts or 
motions, which we feel. We know nothing of 
the substance of which either is composed, nor 
of the mode in which the two are linked 
together. The attempts of science to reach 
and explain these ultimate facts, have not 
amounted to even an approximation. What- 
ever has been written concerning the locality 
of the soul, the time of its entrance into the 
body, the mode by which it acts upon or 
governs it, and the avenue through which it 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



15 



escapes at death, is but little more than specu- 
lation and conjecture. Dr. Abercrombie says, 
"we talk about matter, and we talk about 
mind; we speculate concerning materiality and 
immateriality, until we argue ourselves into a 
kind of belief that we understand something of 
the subject. The truth is, that we understand 
nothing." We really know but little more 
than a few facts in relation to both, which are 
dscoverable by their respective qualities and 
attributes; such as that the two are closely 
united; that what is called the nervous system 
is the medium of communication between them; 
so that they exert a strong reciprocal influence 
upon each other; that when the one is afflicted, 
it always has the sympathy of the other. They, 
therefore, have been employed more wisely, 
who, leaving the former as among the inscru- 
table things of God, have endeavoured to make 
a practical improvement of the latter. It is a 
subject that so intimately blends with all that 
conduces to the enjoyment and usefulness of 
life, as well as its continuance, that it is of the 
highest importance for all to understand it, and 



16 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

to none is such knowledge more needful than 
to the official teachers of religion. 

It is proposed at this time to offer a few 
thoughts on this interesting topic, more with a 
view to awaken the attention, and invite the 
pen of others, than to furnish all that is needed. 
Indeed, such a work as the exigency of the 
Church has long demanded, is not likely to be 
accomplished by "any one who is not furnished 
with a suitable education, theological and medi- 
cal, profoundly and experimentally acquainted 
with the Scriptures, foncl of research, and gifted 
with good powers of generalization and induc- 
tion." 

For those who wish to pursue the subject in 
its pathological bearings, or as one of the de- 
partments of physiology, there are numerous 
medical treatises, both domestic and foreign, 
which are easily accessible. What we have to 
offer in the following chapters is little more 
than the result of some observation, and the 
few years' experience of a pastor. It is in- 
tended to furnish, in a portable form and size, 
a tract for the benefit of Christians of an un- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



17 



equal and fluctuating experience, produced by 
physical causes, though not suspected perhaps 
by themselves, nor their spiritual advisers. 

It has already been said, that much that 
pertains to the nature of the connection be- 
tween the flesh and the spirit is a mystery 
which science has tried in vain to explore. It 
has proceeded so far as to discover in the human 
fabric, certain delicate white threads, leading 
from the brain and spinal marrow to every part 
of the body. It has also been ascertained that 
by means of these nerves (as they are called 
from the Latin term nervus, a string) sensations 
are conveyed from each of the organs of sense 
to the brain; moreover, that these are the chan- 
nels of communication between the mind and 
the body, as is proved by the well-known fact, 
that if one of the nerves of the arm or leg 
be sundered, all power of that limb is lost; if 
another be cut, sensation is no longer transmit- 
ted through the arm to the mind. The branches 
and ramifications of the nerves are so numerous 
and so generally diffused, that they have a vir- 
tual omnipresence throughout the animal fabric. 



18 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

Though diminishing in size as they approach 
their places of termination, so that at length 
they become invisible to the naked eye, yet 
they lose none of their exquisite sensibility. 
The point of the finest needle cannot be 
brought into contact with the skin in any part 
of the body without detecting the presence of 
a nerve. The sensation caused by ever so deli- 
cate a touch upon the most attenuated branch 
is imparted to a larger, then to a larger still, 
and with electric rapidity to all; so that the 
remotest part is instantly conscious of the im- 
pression. This kind of correlation, by which 
different organs of the body are affected by 
impressions made upon one, through the com- 
merce of the nerves, is called "sympathy." 
This mysterious intercourse is rendered more 
complete and effective by the agency of the 
intercostal or "sympathetic nerve," which, pass- 
ing through the innumerable branches and 
plexuses, is the common channel of communi- 
cating with them all. Such is that fearful and 
wonderful department of the human economy 
called the Nervous System — the great organ of 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



19 



thought, feeling, and voluntary motion. How 
much, then, must the enjoyment of life, as well 
as its usefulness, depend on its healthful condi- 
tion! Nor is it the least wonderful of the 
whole, when we examine into the various 
functions of the nerves, and the perpetual irri- 
tations and violence to which they are ex- 
posed, that the nervous economy is not more 
frequently deranged than it is. 

Anatomists tell us, that when these little 
threads become diseased, there is no percep- 
tible change in their size, shape, colour, nor 
appearance. Even when the power of trans- 
mitting sensation is lost, nutrition still goes on, 
and the nerves remain as large in a paralyzed as 
in a healthy limb. Before a patient dies, they 
resist mortification longer than most parts of 
the body, and, after death, decay more slowly. 
This explains, in part, how it is that nervous 
diseases, which are often so prolonged, do not 
more impair the physical strength, nor seem to 
abridge the life of the sufferer. 

"With respect to the actual nature of the 
nervous force, we offer no opinion, nor quote 



20 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

the conjectures of others. The notion that 
obtained for a while among some physiologists, 
that it was identical with the electric power, 
has been generally abandoned in the present 
day. In what way, therefore, this communica- 
tion between the brain, the spinal marrow, and 
the nerves is effected; how the volitions and 
conceptions of the mind are conveyed on these 
delicate material conductors — whether by tre- 
mors or vibrations, like the cords of a musical 
instrument, or, as Hippocrates and Galen sup- 
posed, by a fine ethereal fluid, elaborated in the 
organ of the brain, or by neither — what is their 
specific substance or construction, by which 
they are made not only vehicles of thought, 
but instruments of exquisite pleasure or pain, 
are among the questions that have been a con- 
stant source of hypothesis in past ages, but 
which neither reason nor revelation has an- 
swered. It is quite probable that neither our 
happiness nor our usefulness would be in- 
creased by a knowledge of the essence of mind 
and matter, and that enough is known from 
their various phenomena to answer every prac- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXRERIENCE. 



21 



tical purpose. With that class of them which 
we are about to consider, the world of course 
have been more or less familiar ever since the 
fall subjected man to disease, and made the 
earthly part a clog, while it gave it such 
ascendency over the heavenly. But in regard 
to those morbid results of this connection, 
which are technically called "nervous," it has 
frequently been said, that, to a great extent, 
they are a penalty for an abuse of the multi- 
plied blessings of civilized life. Among savage 
tribes, such affections are scarcely known, and 
they are very rare among those whose pursuits 
are active, and connected with habitual expo- 
sure. But they seem to have increased just in 
proportion as nations have advanced in out- 
ward prosperity and in intellectual refinement. 
Hence it is easily understood why medicine was 
no more diligently cultivated among the an- 
cients, and how it happened that the first phy- 
sician of eminence, who has been called the 
"father of medicine," should have lived within 
less than five hundred years before Christ. In 
the early ages of the world, there was compara- 
tively little occasion for a profession that is 



22 



INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 



now so highly honoured, and which is so indis- 
pensable to the health and happiness of society. 
The simplicity of manners which prevailed, 
plainness of diet, temperance, and activity in 
rural occupations, were productive of a degree 
of health and vigour which are hardly known 
at present. How far the great age of man, 
until shortened by a divine decree, was the 
result of natural causes, we do not presume to 
say; but the progress of the healing art has 
marked, with a good degree of accuracy, in 
successive ages, the increase of luxury and ex- 
cessive sensual indulgence. 

"Had it not been," Dr. Cheyne says, "for 
the lewdness, luxury, and intemperate gratifi- 

r 

cation of the passions and appetites which first 
ruined and spoiled the constitution of the 
fathers, whereby they could communicate only 
a diseased, crazy, and untunable carcass to 
their sons, there had never happened so much 
sickness, pain, and misery, so unhappy lives, 
and such wretched ends, as we now behold 
among men." The records of prisons and 
almshouses prove that physical vices are not 
only perpetuated in the offspring of the guilty 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



28 



parent, but they originate mental deformities. 
Three-fourths of the idiotic in a Massachusetts' 
Charity were found to be of parents, one or 
both of whom were drunken. From an exami- 
tion of juvenile delinquents at Parkhurst, by 
Mr. Kay Shut tie worth, it appeared that the 
majority were found deficient in physical or- 
ganization. Mr. Coleridge says, that the history 
of a man for the months that precede his birth, 
would probably be far more interesting, and 
contain events of greater moment than all that 
follow it. 

I. THE SACRED WRITINGS. 

That these should furnish but little instruc- 
tion on the subject of the present discussion, 
however important to so large a proportion 
of modern believers, is easily accounted for. 
This has fallen rather within the province of 
that science which has grown out of the 
changed circumstances of man, especially the 
great degeneracy in his habits of living. But 
while w r e discover in the Bible comparatively 
few of the elements of many modern theories 



24 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

concerning this union of the soul and body, 
and the moral results, yet they contain records 
of the experience and exercises of the reli- 
gious, and of others, which afford many exem- 
plifications of the fact. Such is supposed by 
some to have been the distressing affection 
of Saul, ascribed to an evil spirit from God, 
the successive paroxysms of which were allayed 
by the music of the son of Jesse. Stackhouse 
thinks, that it proceeded from deep depression 
of spirits, or black bile inflamed, and that 
he was rather hypochondriac than possessed. 
Agreeable to this bad complexion of body, was 
the natural temper of his mind. 

Another example is quoted in the case of 
the Psalmist himself, when, in one of his sacred 
songs, his harp is tuned to strains of the deepest 
melancholy, and he mournfully sings: My soul 
refused to be comforted. I remembered God, 
and was troubled; I complained, and my spirit 
was overwhelmed: I am so troubled that I cannot 
speak. Will the Lord cast off for ever? and 
will he be favourable no more? Is his mercy 
clean gone for ever? Hath God forgotten to be 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



2o 



gracious ? And then he adds, I said this is my 
infirmity; an expression which means, as under- 
stood by some, that he suspects the cause of his 
great depression to be physical, or to proceed 
from the state of the body. 

Another illustration of this connection, and 
the influence of the material part over the 
spiritual, has been drawn from the language of 
the Saviour in his gentle rebuke of the lethargy 
of the disciples in the garden of Gethsemane. 
That they should have fallen asleep under such 
circumstances, appeared to themselves to admit 
of no apology, and they did not attempt it. 
But on being awaked by their Master, he 
kindly remarked, the spirit is willing, but the 
flesh is weak. The delinquency was to be 
ascribed, not so much to the state of their 
heart, as to bodily fatigue ; implying, as is com- 
monly understood, a mild reproof, at the same 
time that it evinces the disposition of Christ 
to regard it as evidence more of natural in- 
firmity than of guilt. The same injurious 
influence of the earthly part is recognized by 
the apostle Paul, in those numerous passages 
3 



26 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

of his writings in which he so graphically 
describes the conflict between the flesh and the 
spirit: I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, 
there dwelleth no good thing. I delight in the 
law of God, after the inner man, but I see another 
law in my members warring against the law of 
my mind, bringing me, &c. In another place, he 
ascribes the inability of the law to justify, not 
to itself, but to a weakness through the flesh. 
We are aware that the term flesh here is used 
in a figurative sense, to signify the remainder 
of natural corruption which still adheres to the 
man, even after his moral state has become 
changed by regenerating grace. But the pas- 
sages are none the less suited to our purpose, 
inasmuch as they imply that the organs of sense 
are made the instruments through which the 
corruption of our nature is developed, and its 
operation felt upon the spiritual man. In this 
connection, it may be observed, that the 
writings of the Fathers contain numerous quo- 
tations from the serious minded heathen, that 
show a striking coincidence with the opinions 
of Paul on the subject of depravity, and espe- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



27 



cially the prejudicial influence of the body. 
Cicero's remark is familiar to many — that men 
are brought into life by nature, as a step- 
mother, with a frail and infirm body, with a 
soul prone to divers lusts. And what but this 
doctrine of physical influence is perverted and 
caricatured in that motley mixture of Chris- 
tianity and Persian philosophy contained in the 
system of the Manicheans of the third century of 
the Christian era, concerning the two principles 
of good and evil — the former of which is repre- 
sented as the creator of the soul of man, and 
the latter of his body. 

II. THE TESTIMONY OF SCIENCE. 

If what the Scriptures contain on this sub- 
ject amounts only to hints or implications, 
rather than positive declarations, our light is 
abundant when we come to the testimony of 
science. The connection and influence of 
which we speak, have been proved and illus- 
trated with great clearness by those who have 
examined the structure of the human system, 
its capacities and functions, organic, intellect- 
ual, and moral. They have not failed to see 



28 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

how much the state of the mind and moral 
feelings has to do with the induction, the per- 
sistence, and final issue of many maladies. 
This connection is as fully implied in the 
abuses of this truth, as it is taught in its legi- 
timate uses. Thus it has been made to furnish 
the basis of materialism under the milder, and, 
as understood and taught by many, the inno- 
cent forms of cranioscopy, craniology, phreno- 
logy, &c, as well as of that grosser system of 
Lawrence, which makes the soul of man a mere 
chymical combination, which contends that it 
is not a spiritual substance, distinct from his 
body, but that the principle within him which 
thinks, is material; and that reasoning and re- 
flection are functions of organized matter; 
which gravely tells him that he grows like a 
vegetable, or accretes like a crystal; or is at- 
tracted and repulsed like a particle of iron 
exposed to magnetic influence: That his brain 
secretes thought, as his liver secretes bile; that 
believing and disbelieving are acts of the soul, 
as is tasting of the body, and one is as destitute 
of any moral character as the other; and there- 
fore, that it is as absurd to suppose a man 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



29 



blamable for being an atheist, as for being 
afflicted with an attack of the gout. That or- 
ganized differs from inorganized matter, merely 
by the addition of certain properties, such as 
sensibility and irritability, which are called vital. 
The masses of matter which constitute the 
several parts of the animal frame are endowed 
according to the respective functions or pur- 
poses which they are to execute, and life is the 
general result of their exercise. Upon this 
hypothesis, the human frame is nothing more 
than "a barrel-organ, possessing a systematic 
arrangement of parts, played upon by peculiar 
powers, and executing particular pieces or pur- 
poses. Life is the music produced by the 
general assemblage, or result of the harmonious 
action. As long as either the vital or mechani- 
cal instrument is wound up by a regular supply 
of food, or of the winch, so long the music will 
continue; but both are worn out by their own 
action; and when the machine will no longer 
work, the life has the same close as the music; 

redit in nihilum, quod fait ante nihil. 

That r back to nothing goes, which nothing was before. 

3* 



30 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

That such sentiments as these are as directly 
at variance with sound science as they are with 
revealed religion, it is gratuitous to assert. In 
admitting, as we hav^ done, that this inexplica- 
ble union of the body and soul may involve 
many truths which have not yet been discover- 
ed, we do not concede that it warrants any such 
atheistic corollaries as this. It would be easy 
to show, that although commended by names 
of some notoriety, yet such a materialism is 
"a logical absurdity, and a total misconception 
of the first principles of philosophical inquiry." 
But as it is our purpose in this disquisition to 
keep within the province of Christian casuistry, 
we think it better, in passing, rather to hint at 
than quote, as freely as we might, the illustra- 
tions of the present head, which are furnished 
by physiology. Yet all may safely be granted 
to the influence of the flesh upon the spirit, 
which truth requires, without affording the 
smallest ground for those shocking conclu- 
sions. 

The great vital organs of the human system, 
such as the brain, stomach, liver, &c, may 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



31 



seem to act as mechanically as the hand, the 
ear, or the tongue, yet the health of the mind 
is much affected by the healthful state of this 
apparatus of the body. Notice, first, 

The Braix. "We know and admit, that the 
operations of the intellect are closely allied to 
that soft whitish mass, or viscus, lodged be- 
neath the arched bone of the head, which is 
called the brain. Thus a blow which depresses 
a portion of the skull upon the brain, will cause 
a derangement or suspension of the mind's ope- 
rations until such pressure is removed. A man 
at the battle of Waterloo had. a small portion 
of his skull-bone beat in upon the brain, to the 
depth of half an inch. This caused volition 
and sensation to cease, and he was nearly in a 
lifeless state. So soon as the depressed portion 
of bone was raised from the brain, the man 
immediately arose, dressed himself, became per- 
fectly rational, and recovered rapidly. 

It has been discovered that whatever pro- 
duces mental excitement, increases the flow of 
blood to the head, and thus augments the size 
and power of the brain; just as exertion of the 



32 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 



limbs enlarges and strengthens their muscles. 
Sir Astley Cooper had a patient whose skull 
was so imperfect as to enable him to examine 
the movements of the brain. " I distinctly 
saw," Sir Astley says, " that the pulsation of 
the brain was regular and slow; but at this 
time he was agitated by some opposition to his 
wishes, and directly the blood was sent with 
increased force to his brain, and the pulsations 
became frequent and violent." 

A case more interesting still, mentioned by 
Dr. Caldwell, was a female who had lost a 
large portion of the skull and dura mater by 
disease. "When she was in a dreamless sleep, 
her brain was motionless ; when her sleep was 
imperfect, and disturbed by dreams, her brain 
protruded from the cranium. In vivid dreams, 
reported as such by herself, the protrusion was 
considerable; and when perfectly awake, espe- 
cially if engaged in active thought, or sprightly 
conversation, it was much greater. 

It is known that the brain of an adult of 
ordinary intellect is comparatively large, weigh- 
ing about three and a half pounds, often a little 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



less. In some persons of uncommon mind, it 
has been known to be much greater. The 
brain of Byron, for instance, is said to have 
weighed four and a half pounds, and that of 
Baron Cuvier four pounds thirteen ounces and 
a half. On the other hand, the brain of an 
idiot does not exceed in size that of a child a 
year old, or between one and two pounds in 
weight. It has been proved by measurement, 
that the heads of great thinkers frequently con- 
tinue to increase until the subjects are fifty 
years of age, and long after the other portions 
of the system have ceased to enlarge. This 
was true of Bonaparte, whose head, though 
small in youth, in after life became enormous. 
The reverse is know r n to occur in cases of pro- 
tracted insanity; not only the brain diminishes, 
but the skull itself has often sensibly contract- 
ed, as is mentioned of Dean Swift, who, in the 
latter part of his life, sunk into a state of men- 
tal imbecility, a distressing calamity, of which 
he appears to have had a presentiment, having 
predicted " that he would first die at top." 
It is vain then to deny that this wonder- 



34 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

ful part of the body has much to do with the 
manifestations of mind, though we know of no 
warrant for the strange conceit of the older 
physiologists, that there is some central spot in 
that organ where all the messages of the nerves 
are ultimately reported, and whence all the 
orders of the will are issued; or for the figment 
of Descartes, that the peculiar seat of the mind 
is the pineal gland. Nor is it incredible, that 
a different combination of the physical ele- 
ments of the man may occasion a corresponding 
difference in the character and qualities of the 
mind ; that a genius for poetry or mathematics, 
for painting or music, may be connected with 
a peculiar arrangement or disposition of some 
particles in the animal economy; in other words, 
that the earthen vessel is so constructed in some 
particulars, which escape the eye of the anato- 
mist, as to form a different mould, or give a 
peculiar shape to the mind, according to the 
sphere of usefulness for which it is designed by 
its Creator. All this may be true, and not con- 
flict with the teachings of revelation. Indeed, 
for aught we know to the contrary, it is com- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



35 



prehended in what the Psalmist calls the " fear- 
ful and wonderful" construction of man. But 
in what way the power of thought is originated, 
or how it is affected by the matter in which it 
seems to be lodged, is perhaps as profound a 
secret to Gabriel as it is to us; while the facts 
by which the truth itself is demonstrated, are, 
many of them, as affecting as they are familiar. 
Is the body attacked and prostrated by disease, 
it is sure of the sympathy of its spiritual part- 
ner, which is often reduced to the feebleness of 
infancy by the debility of the former. Its per- 
ceptions become obtuse, the memory fails, the 
power of attention is gone, as we are often 
painfully admonished by discovering that the 
conversation and counsels which were given to 
the sick, their confessions, and promises, and 
prayers, are all forgotten on their recovery. 
Perhaps it is not recollected even, that we 
were once at their bedside and addressed them. 
But the connection is not less intimate be- 
tween the mind and 

The Stomach. Whether this sympathy takes 
place through the medium of the blood-vessels, 



36 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

the nerves, or both, we do not know. Nothing 
is made more familiar by experience than the 
fact, that the vigorous action of the former 
depends, in a great degree, upon the sound 
condition of the latter. Some assert that the 
brain, as the common sensorium to which all 
sensations are ultimately referred, is the first 
to become sensible to the disorder of the sto- 
mach. That, "like two friends in harmonious 
co-operation, they mutually support each other 
in health; but, in disease, like sworn enemies, 
they act and react upon each other with the 
most destructive malignity." Who has not ob- 
served, without the aid of books or physicians 
to suggest it, that whatever painfully affects 
his mind, and disturbs its equanimity, takes 
away his appetite for food, or the power to 
digest it, and causes more or less disquietude 
in the stomach. For this reason, a strong ex- 
citement of the mind is often one of the surest 
remedies for this uneasiness. No man, per- 
haps, ever had an appetite for food under the 
full influence of the depressing passions, such 
as fear or grief. He may eat from persuasion, 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



or from a sense of duty, but he eats without 
desire or a craving sense of hunger. Hence, 
those who are suddenly deprived of their senses 
by an overwhelming and unexpected evil, pass 
days and nights without food of any kind, each 
sufferer feeling with King Lear, 

When the mind's free 
The body's delicate; the tempest in my mind 
Doth from my senses take all feeling else 
Save what beats there. 

Dr. Brigham says: "One day, when about 
to sit down to dinner, with an appetite whetted 
by five or six hours' exercise, a letter was put 
into my hands announcing the death of a friend 
to whom I felt strongly attached. The conse- 
quence was an instantaneous loss of appetite, 
which continued for two or three days." A 
stern look, and a very few reproachful words 
from Henry VIII. gave the ambitious "Woolsey 
a fit of indigestion which destroyed the Cardi- 
nal's life. 

The stomach, in its turn, reacts upon the 
mind, causing confusion of thought, defect of 
memory, and of the power of abstraction — not 
4 



88 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

to mention despondency, irascibility, and other 
kinds of morbid mental disturbance, by which 
the sufferer is made ineffably wretched. Hence 
dyspepsia, that malady so Protean in its forms, 
once generally thought to be a disease origi- 
nating always in the stomach, is now considered 
by many of the most intelligent of the faculty 
as primarily a disease of the brain and nervous 
system, perpetuated by mental excitement, espe- 
cially in the case of students. Thus it has been 
observed, that persons who are in the habit 
of strongly employing their mental faculties 
shortly after taking food, are more or less sub- 
ject to this affection. In such a case, the nerv- 
ous energy required for the process of digestion, 
instead of being expended upon the stomach, is 
wasted upon the intellectual organs. Aristotle 
informs us that all the great men of his time 
were hypochondriacs; that " they had cultiva- 
ted their mind at the expense of their body." 

Nor is the force of the morbid impulse pro- 
ceeding from the brain wholly exhausted upon 
the stomach, but often reaches to 

The Lungs and Heart — causing diseased 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



3D 



action in both. The acute pain sometimes felt 
in the region of the heart, a tremulous or flut- 
tering sensation there, interruptions of the pulse, 
and palpitations, which the alarmed sufferer is 
ready to ascribe to organic disease, are very 
often symptoms only of "gastric derangement, 
which has been generated by the morbific in- 
fluence of the mind. 3 ' 

But none of the viscera of the body better 
show its alliance to the mind, or illustrate and 
establish this mysterious influence of the body 
on the mind, than the 

Liter. "What are all the uses of this organ 
in the human economy, is still a subject of in- 
quiry. The main service which it performs, so 
far as is generally understood, is merely the 
secretion daily of a few ounces of bile. But 
when we consider its dimensions — the largest 
gland of any kind in the human system — the 
number and size of its parts, and its peculiar 
structure, we cannot resist the impression that 
this great constituent of the vital mechanism 
is used for a higher purpose than this. And 
hence the opinion has obtained, both among 



40 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

the ancients and moderns, that the liver has a 
powerful influence on the temperament, the 
mental functions, and the passions of the man, 
and thus affecting his moral and religious feel- 
ings. We presume to offer no solution of the 
fact, nor even a conjecture, why a certain 
class of mental phenomena should be developed 
by the condition of this particular gland; why 
the liver should exhibit its affinities for that 
which is gloomy and sad, rather than the lungs 
or heart] But the fact is witnessed every 
day, that such is the power of many of the 
depressing passions when suddenly excited, that 
they cause a gush of bile into the system at 
large, which gives a yellow tinge to the eye, 
and overcasts the mind with the most rueful 
forebodings and ineffable despondency. Why 
it should cause this mental dejection, is just as 
inexplicable as is the hopeful, buoyant spirit of 
the hectic patient, whose more desperate malady 
is seated in his lungs. The contrast is remark- 
able, whatever may be the cause. While in 
the last stage of consumption the sufferer is 
cheerful and incredulous as to the issue which 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



41 



is so obvious to others, the man labouring 
under disease of the liver is often oppressed 
with a heaviness of heart which repels relief 
from any suggestion of reason or the consola- 
tions of religion. The classical reader will 
recollect the frightful story of the miserable 
Tityus, as told by both Homer and Virgil, who, 
for his nameless crime, was condemned to be 
eternally tormented by the preying of a vulture 
upon his liver, which was supernaturally repro- 
duced as fast as consumed. 

Rostroque immanis vultur obunco, 
Immortale jecur tun Jens. 

A huge vulture, with his hooky beak, 
Pouncing his immortal liver. — Davidson. 

Whether our poets designed that fable should 
receive a physiological gloss, and were prompt- 
ed, in part, by their own morbid experiences or 
not, it is certainly a most graphic allegory, de- 
scriptive at once of the seat, the intensity, and 
hopelessness of that unspeakable wretchedness 
which so often proceeds from a diseased condi- 
tion of this organ. Such would seem to have 
been the opinion of Lucretius, who, in giving 
4* 



42 



INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 



the moral of various heathen fables, furnishes 
the following interpretation of this, as trans- 
lated by Dryden. 

No Tityus torn by vultures lies in hell, 
Nor could the lobes of his rank liver swell 
To that prodigious mass for their eternal meal. 
But he's the Tityus, who by love oppressed, 
Or tyrant passions preying on his breast, 
And ever anxious thoughts, is robbed of rest. 

Hippocrates, Galen, Aretceus, and other illus- 
trious ancients, were accustomed to describe a 
great variety of mental disease under the gene- 
ral term "melancholy," because they believed a 
pensive and desponding state of the mind to 
arise from a superabundance of "black bile," 
the literal meaning of the compound word 
"melancholy." Others supposed the hidden 
cause of this mental depression to be the 

Spleen — and hence, "to be spleeny," as de- 
scriptive of the gloomy and disconsolate, has 
come down to us traditionally as a saying of 
antiquity. What is the use of this spongy 
viscus has never been determined. Dr. Good 
says various hypotheses have been offered by 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



43 



learned men; but they are hypotheses, and 
nothing more. Archdeacon Paley thinks it is 
employed as needful in the package of the 
animal mass. It is possible, he says, that the 
spleen may be "merely a stuffing, a soft cushion 
to fill up a vacancy or hollow, which, unless 
occupied, would leave the package loose and 
unsteady." The same opinion concerning the 
influence of the liver in producing emotions of 
sadness is conveyed in the word "hypochon- 
driac," applied by the ancients to the melan- 
choly, and which has been domesticated by 
the moderns. Every reader who can analyse 
the term, knows that it designates the posi- 
tion of this organ, u-o yovbpov^ under the car- 
tilage. Thus the opinion obtained early, that 
by some mysterious generation, affections of 
this sombre cast were the offspring of the 
liver. 

The writer is indebted to a lady of genius, 
and various accomplishments of both mind and 
person, for a critical remark and suggestion in 
relation to the subject of hepatic influence, as 
furnished by her own experience. She is 



44 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

favourably known to the literary and religious 
community by several instructive and interest- 
ing works, and has paid the common penalty of 
the studious in those physical ailments which 
are too often the price of their success. She 
had very soon discovered that the fluctuations 
in her animal spirits, religious enjoyment, and 
spiritual exercises generally; the changes in 
her temper, mental energy, and cheerfulness, 
to which she is painfully subject, were symp- 
tomatic of a corresponding change in the con- 
dition of this sensitive organ. But the exhibi- 
tion of some simple remedy, by which its 
healthful functions are restored, brings back at 
once her elastic freedom of thought and cheer- 
fulness. 

The preceding illustrations of the close con- 
nection between the spiritual man and the 
material, are doubtless ample for the ordinary 
reader. But in view of the grave moral uses 
to which this interesting truth is to be applied 
in our subsequent remarks, we will presume on 
the reader's indulgence while we adduce a few 
to exemplify the power of the passions as dis- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



45 



turbers of the healthy action of our bodies. 
Some of these, it is known, retard the circu- 
lation of the blood, which, on the contrary, 
is accelerated by opposite emotions that are 
stronger and more vigorous. Who has failed 
to notice how the heart palpitates, and the 
" pulse gallops," when the mind is excited by 

Love. When Antiochus the Syrian was ill of 
an occult disease which threatened his life, the 
cause of it was undiscoverable until betrayed to 
his physicians by their observing that his pulse 
suddenly became irregular whenever Stratonice 
entered the room. It then appeared that love 
for her was the cause of his illness. This was 
immediately told to his royal father, who wil- 
lingly gave her to his son, that his immoderate 
passion might not cause his death. Not less 
operative is the influence of 

Hope. What fact is better established by 
the teachings, as well as the experience of the 
medical profession, than that the success of 
surgical operations, and the results of medicine, 
are materially affected by the hope or despair 
that preponderates in the mind of the patient. 



46 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

Surgeons in the army have noticed a marked 
contrast between the mortality among the 
wounded of a victorious and that of a con- 
quered army. The most severe and apparently 
desperate cases recover in the former, while 
hospital gangrene, erysipelas, typhus, and dysen- 
tery, usually decimate the latter. Even the 
lighter cases are comparatively slow in their 
recovery, and imperfect in their convalescence. 
After the great battle on the Mincio, 1859, be- 
tween the French and Sardinians on the one 
side, and Austrians on the other, so disastrous 
to the latter, the defeated army retreated, fol- 
lowed by the victors. A description of the 
march of each army is given by two correspon- 
dents of the London Times^ one of whom travel- 
led with the successful host, the other with the 
defeated. The differences in views and state- 
ments of the same place, scenes, and events, is 
remarkable. The former are said to be march- 
ing through a beautiful and luxuriant country 
during the day, and at night encamping where 
they are supplied with an abundance of the 
best provisions, and all sorts of rural dainties. 



ON RELIGIOUS FXPERIENCE. 



47 



There is nothing of war about the proceed- 
ing, except its stimulus and excitement. On 
the side of the poor Austrians it is just the 
reverse. In his letter of the same date, de- 
scribing the same places, and a march over the 
same road, the writer can scarcely find words 
to set forth the sufferings, impatience, and dis- 
gust existing around him. What was pleasant 
to the former was intolerable to the latter. 
What made all this difference 1 asks the jour- 
nalist. "One condition only; the French are 
victorious, the Austrians have been defeated. 
The contrast may convey a distinctive idea of 
the extent to which moral impressions affect 
the efficiency of the soldier." 

When Dr. Rush was asked by a young man, 
his patient, supposed to be near his death in 
consumption, whether he might learn to play 
on the flute, the doctor told him yes, and at 
once said to his parents that he would get well. 
Parke tells us in his travels that one day, in 
his journey through the burning desert, ex- 
hausted with privations and fatigue, and ready, 
as he supposed, to die, he chanced at that 



4s 



INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 



moment to spy a tiny flower that had reared 
its head above the ground. " What !" thought 
he — " will that Providence which has watched 
over this humble plant, not care for me, who 
have been taught to regard him as a Father]" 
The thought revived his sinking spirits, and 
he immediately felt both his strength and his 
resolution to be greatly invigorated. Not less 
potent is the agency of 

Fear. How much has been said of its inju- 
rious influence as predisposing to disease, espe- 
cially during the prevalence of epidemics! A 
curious experiment was tried in Russia with 
four murderers, who were placed, without know- 
ing it, in separate beds, where four persons had 
died with cholera. They slept soundly and 
safely, none of them taking the disease. They 
were then put into beds, on which they were 
told that persons had just died of malignant 
cholera. The beds, however, were perfectly 
new, and had not been used at all. The result 
was, that three of them took the disease, and 
died within four hours. 

During the prevalence of that appaling epi- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



40 



clemic in the city of Philadelphia and vicinity, 
not a single case occurred among the inmates of 
the Cherry Hill prison, which was ascribed to 
the fact that the existence of that pestilence in 
their neighbourhood was effectually concealed 
from them until its severity had abated. Doubt- 
less the freedom of physicians from fear is one 
of the main causes of the well-known immunity 
with which so many of them mingle among 
patients sick with the most contagious dis- 
eases. The efficacy of fear has been exhibited 
in instances of recovery from complaints which 
bade defiance to every means that science could 
devise. Both Doctors Batchelder and Bush 
mention cases of gout which were effectually 
dispelled by a sudden fright. An old man 
who for several years had suffered an annual 
attack of gout, was lying in one of these 
paroxysms, when his son, by some accident, 
drove the shaft of a wagon through the window 
of his room, with a terrific noise and a disas- 
trous smashing of the glass. The shock was 
electrifying, and he leaped from his bed with 
5 



50 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

the agility of a boy, forgetting his crutches and 
cane, which were no longer needed. 

By the same prophylactic aid of fear, Boer- 
haave once relieved a number of persons from 
epileptic fits, which were occasioned by witness- 
ing the convulsions of others. In the hearing 
of these patients, he gave orders that hot irons 
should be applied to the first person who should 
be attacked. The expedient proved successful, 
and not one opportunity occurred for a resort 
to this frightful remedy. And who can doubt 
that most of the monomania which Dr. Moore 
calls the fashionable apology for murder, might 
be effectually prevented by the restraining 
agency of fear, if known that certain retri- 
bution would follow the crime. 

Not long ago a man in New Hampshire was 
convicted of murder, committed in a state of 
partial derangement from strong drink. Just 
before his execution he acknowledged that his 
punishment was deserved, but added, that "had 
I known I should be hung for killing the man, 
I would have let him alone." 

The teachings of Broussais respecting inflam- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



51 



mation of the stomach, made such an impres- 
sion on the minds, and so excited the fears of 
many, we are told, as to have greatly multi- 
plied the cases in Paris at the time. Doctor 
John Hunter attributed the heart-disease, by 
which he ultimately died in a fit of passion, to 
his fear of having caught hydrophobia while 
dissecting the body of a patient who died of 
that disease. When Corvisart lectured at Paris 
on the heart, affections of that organ, whether 
real or imaginary, were greatly multiplied. 
He agrees with Testa, another w r riter on the 
same subject, that the feelings have great in- 
fluence in changing the natural action of the 
heart, and producing disorder. The latter au- 
thor considered the powerful and irregular ope- 
rations of the passions as the most frequent 
cause of organic disease of the heart; which 
explains why this complaint was so much more 
common in Italy during seasons of political 
agitation, and especially in France at the time 
of the Revolution, than at any 'other period. 
The French Journal of Medicine records the 
case of an aged female, who, from agitation and 



52 



INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 



fright, became black as a negro, from head to 
foot in a few hours. The same cause whitened 
the hair on half the head of a patient in the 
Pennsylvania Hospital, and on the whole head 
of Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI., in a 
single night. 

A correspondent of the London Medical 
Times, writing from India, February 19, 1858, 
says that a Sepoy of the Bengal army, having 
been made a prisoner, was brought before the 
authorities for examination. The man trem- 
bled violently; intense horror and despair were 
depicted on his face, and he seemed to be 
almost stupified with fear. The writer, who 
was present, adds, that within the space of half 
an hour his hair became gray on every portion 
of his head. " When first seen by us, it was 
the glossy jet-black of the Bengalee; his age 
was twenty-four. The attention of the by- 
standers was first attracted by the Sergeant, 
whose prisoner he was, exclaiming, 4 he is turn- 
ing gray!' and I, with several other persons, 
watched its progress. Gradually, but deci- 
dedly, the change went on, and a uniform gray 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



53 



colour was completed within the period above 
named." 

A few years ago two young men attempted 
to rob an eagle's nest, high up on a cliff on the 
bank of the Hudson river, but several feet 
below the summit. One of them was let down 
in a basket, suspended by a rope, till he came 
opposite the nest. The eagle returned to pro- 
tect her young, and in endeavouring to defend 
himself against her talons, the young man drew 
his knife, and in the contest accidentally cut all 
the strands of the rope but one. Meantime his 
companion was drawing him up to the summit, 
but he was so affected by fear at his perilous 
condition, that the next day his hair became as 
hoary as that of an old man. 

The following case may be adduced, not 
merely for the illustration of our subject, but 
for the wholesome warning that it suggests 
against the vice of which it is a monitory regis- 
ter. A young man, twenty-three years old, 
came from the mines to San Francisco, with 
the intention of soon leaving the latter place 
for home. On the evening of his arrival, he, 
5* 



54 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

with his companions, visited the gambling sa- 
loons. After watching for a time the varied 
fortunes of a table, supposed to be undergoing 
the process of "tapping," from the continued 
success of those betting against the bank, the 
excitement overcame his better judgment, and 
he threw upon the " seven-spot" of a new deal, 
a bag which he said contained eleven hundred 
dollars — his all — the result of two years' priva- 
tion and hard labour — exclaiming, with a voice 
trembling from intense excitement, "My home, 
or the mines!" As the dealer slowly resumed 
the drawing of his cards, his countenance, livid 
with fear of the inevitable fate that seems ever 
attendant upon the tapping process when once 
commenced, the writer, who was present, says: 
"I turned my eyes upon the young man who 
had staked his whole gains upon a card. Never 
shall I forget the impression made by his look 
of intense anxiety as he watched the cards as 
they fell from the dealer's hands. All the ener- 
gies of his system seemed concentrated in the 
fixed gaze of his eyes, while the deadly pallor 
of his face bespoke the subdued action of his 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



55 



heart. All around seemed infected with the 
sympathetic powers of the spell; even the 
hitherto successful winners forgot their own 
stakes in the hazardous chance placed upon the 
issue of the bet. The cards are slowly told 
with the precision of high-wrought excitement. 
The seven-spot wins — the spell is broken — re- 
action takes place. The winner exclaims, with 
a deep-drawn sigh, c I will never gamble again!' 
and was carried from the room in a deep 
swoon, from which he did not fully recover 
until the next morning; and then to know that 
the equivalent surrendered for his gain was 
the colour of his hair, now changed to a per- 
fect white !" Not less sudden, nor less calami- 
tous often, are the effects of 

Grief. Father Chrysostom describes it as 
"a cruel torture of the soul, consuming the 
body, and gnawing the very heart." Melanc- 
thon says, "it strikes the heart, makes it flutter 
and pine away in great pain." It was believed 
that Philip V. of Spain died suddenly by the 
breaking of his heart on hearing of the hope- 
less defeat of his army near Plaisance. Dr. 



56 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 



Zimmerman states, that on opening the king's 
body the heart was found actually burst; so 
that, as Johnson says, the vulgar metaphorical 
expression of a "broken heart," is sometimes 
pathologically correct. What amazing results 
have followed a sudden paroxysm of 

Joy. A woman in the city of New York 
heard that her husband and child were on board 
a ship that had been wrecked. Accustomed to 
go to the wharf from day to day, as if desirous 
of being nearer the beloved objects that were 
supposed to be buried beneath the sea, she sud- 
denly beheld them landing from a vessel that 
had picked them up. The joy on seeing them 
safe was overwhelming. After the first saluta- 
tion her reason fled, and from that time to the 
present she has not known them. She still 
sits on what she thinks the same rock where 
she used to bewail their fate, wringing her 
hands with ineffable distress ; while every week 
the husband and son visit her, hoping to find 
a gleam of returning memory, but in vain. 

Sophocles, Chilo, Juventius, Talma, and 
Fouquet, are said to have died from the ex- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



57 



citement of excessive joy. Life was extin- 
guished in a moment by a sudden surcharge of 
the brain with blood, causing apoplexy. How 
many have witnessed the withering power of 

Chagrin, or Shame. Rev. Daniel Baker tells 
the story of a young man, who several years 
ago was charged before an ecclesiastical court 
with an infamous crime, but; as he declared 
the imputation to be slanderous, a committee 
was appointed to investigate the matter, and 
report. "I was present," Mr. Baker says, 
" when, in the presence of two or three hun- 
dred citizens, the report was made, which 
affirmed that the charge against him was true ! 
I saw the man the moment his character was 
thus blasted for ever. After one frantic effort, 
with a pistol, to take the life of the person who 
had thus exposed him, he dropped his head, and 
could not bear to look upon man or woman any 
more. Soon after returning to his lodgings, 
he laid himself down and died. Shame killed 
him !" How mysterious is the power of 

Sympathy — which one describes as the natu- 
ral check that the Almighty puts upon unchari- 



58 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

table self. In spite of themselves, there are 
few that have not felt compassion for others. 
This affords a beautiful proof both of the divine 
beneficence and of the power of the mind over 
the body. It is that inexplicable something in 
our moral and physical structure by which a 
multitude may be apparently possessed by the 
same spirit; the organism of each instanta- 
neously taking on the same action, simply from 
the mind being devoted to the same object. 
There is no part nor organ of the body in 
which existing uneasiness may not be aggra- 
vated or relieved according as the attention is 
directed to the part or diverted from it. "Look 
at a person when yawning — read, or only think 
of it, and you begin to gape yourself. The 
wheezing and asthmatic struggles seen on one 
man, have been known to produce the same 
symptoms in another. Many obstinate and dis- 
tressing coughs have been aggravated and pro- 
longed by the mere apprehension of their return 
if relieved for a season." The physical effects 
of a 

Morbid Imitative Sympathy, and of Imagi- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



59 



nation, on the nervous system, are familiarly 
known. They have been displayed in all the 
various extravagancies which, at times, have 
attended the preaching of the gospel, and too 
often impeded its progress. The phenomena of 
this sort which are recorded in Dr. Davidson's 
"History of the Presbyterian Church in the 
State of Kentucky," are not less interesting to 
the psychologist and physician than they are to 
the preacher. They were occasioned, doubtless, 
in part, by an undue excitement of animal feel- 
ing. But the manifold forms, especially the 
fc€ bodily exercises," by which this excited feel- 
ing was exhibited, have ever been, to some 
extent, inexplicable on any known principles 
of mental or physical science. They were classi- 
fied under the significant names of the Falling, 
Rolling, Running, Dancing, Barking, and Jerk- 
ing exercises, each of which was descriptive of 
a distinctive sort of bodily movement or agita- 
tion. We select, for an example, that muscu- 
lar convulsion which was familiarly called the 
Jerks. The first recorded instance of its occur- 
rence was at the administration of the Lord's 



60 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

Supper in East Tennessee, when several hundred 
of both sexes were affected with this strange 
and involuntary contortion. "The subject was 
instantaneously seized with spasms or convul- 
sions in every muscle, nerve, and tendon. His 
head was jerked or thrown from side to side 
with such rapidity that it was impossible to 
distinguish his visage, and the most lively fears 
were entertained lest he should dislocate his 
neck, or dash out his brains. His body par- 
took of the same impulse, and was hurried on 
by like jerks over every obstacle — fallen trunks 
of trees, or, in a church, over pews and benches, 
apparently to the most imminent danger of 
being bruised and mangled. It was useless to 
attempt to hold or restrain him, and the 
paroxysm was permitted gradually to exhaust 
itself. An additional motive for leaving him 
to himself was the superstitious notion that all 
attempt at restraint was 'resisting the Spirit of 
God.' One remarkable feature of these bodily 
affections was, that the very apprehension of an 
attack would often bring it on in spite of all 
precaution or efforts of the will to prevent it. 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 61 

A young man, the son of an elder, who was 
a tanner, feigned sickness on Sabbath morning 
to avoid accompanying the family to a camp- 
meeting. He was left alone in bed, with none 
in the house but a few black children. He 
lay some time triumphing in the success of his 
stratagem, but afraid to rise too soon, lest some 
one might be accidentally lingering, and detect 
him. As he lay quiet with his head covered, 
his thoughts were naturally directed to the 
camp-meeting, and fancy painted an assembled 
multitude, the public worship, and individuals 
falling into the usual spasmodic convulsions. 
All at once he found himself violently jerked 
out of bed, and dashed round the room and 
against the walls, in a manner altogether be- 
yond his control. Recollecting that praying 
was said to be a good sedative on such occa- 
sions, he resorted to the experiment, and, to 
his great satisfaction, found it successful. He 
returned to bed quite relieved, but only to be 
again affected in the same way, and again 
quieted by the act of prayer. He then dressed 
himself, and to occupy his mind, went to the 
6 



62 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

tan yard, and drawing a skin from the vat, 
prepared to take off the hair. He rolled up 
his sleeves, and grasping the knife, was about 
to commence operations, when instantaneously 
the knife was flirted out of his hand, and he 
himself jerked over logs, and against fences, 
as before. Gaining relief by resorting to the 
former remedy, he ventured to resume his 
occupation, and again was interrupted. But 
finding his talisman losing its efficacy, he began 
now to be really alarmed, and quitting the 
yard, he returned to his chamber and betook 
himself to prayer in good earnest. In this 
condition, weeping and crying to God for 
mercy, he was found by the family on their 
return. The result of this singular incident 
was, that he became a truly converted man, 
and shortly after connected himself with the 
church. 

The same author mentions another example 
of the involuntary nature of these bodily exer- 
cises, in the case of a lady and gentleman of 
some note in the fashionable world, who were 
attracted to the camp-meeting at Cane Kidge 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 63 

by mere curiosity. On the way they amused 
themselves with a variety of jokes upon the 
poor deluded creatures who allowed themselves 
to roll screaming in the mud, and crying for 
mercy; and sportively agreed, that if either of 
them should fall, the other should remain, 
and render suitable protection and assistance. 
They had not been long on the ground, when, 
to the consternation of the gentleman, his gay 
companion suddenly dropped; whereupon, in- 
stead of fulfilling his promise, he fled at full 
speed. Flight, however, proved no preserva- 
tive, for he had not gone two hundred yards 
before he was seized in the same way, and 
measured his own length upon the ground; 
while a crowd flocked around him to witness 
his mortification, and offer prayers in his be- 
half. 

Very much like this, and equally marvellous, 
are the bodily exercises which have attended 
the late work of grace in Ireland. Dr. Mac- 
naughton says, that "persons would be sud- 
denly struck down as if they were dead; and 
not under the influence of exciting appeals 



64 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

made to them, for the same things happened 
to them when they were alone, and no person 
speaking to them. 9 ' 

Instructive exemplifications of our subject, 
concerning the power of the imagination, might 
be taken from the records of empiricism. 
Every feat of medical charlatanry has been 
a signal illustration of the strong reciprocal 
influence of the mind and the body. In the 
early part of the present century, a native of 
New England reaped a harvest of more than 
ten thousand pounds sterling from grateful, 
but deluded patients in Great Britain, whom 
he had relieved of distressing maladies by 
means of his "metallic tractors." These were 
two small pieces of metal of different kinds, 
which received their name from being drawn 
slightly over the part of the body affected, and 
which were said to attract the disease to the 
surface. That these marvellous cures were 
produced by the imagination of the sufferer, 
was proved by Dr. Haygarth, who had a couple 
of wooden tractors made, to resemble in ap- 
pearance the metallic. The tractors of both 



ON RELIGIOUS EXRERIENCE. 



65 



sorts were afterwards applied to five patients, 
and the same benefit followed, whether the 
instrument used was made of wood or of iron; 
thus demonstrating the whole to be a grand 
imposture. It was a case which clearly be- 
longs to the same category with that related 
of Dr. "Woodhouse, who tested the power of 
imagination on certain persons, who, when 
nitrous oxide excited great attention, were 
anxious to breathe the gas. He administered 
to them ten gallons of atmospherical air, in 
doses of from four to six quarts. Impressed 
with the idea that they were inhaling the 
exhilarating gas, they soon began to exhibit 
the usual quickness of pulse, vertigo, ringing 
in the ears, difficulty of breathing, faintness, 
weakness of the knees, and nausea, which 
lasted from six to eight hours. 

Bartholini, a famous physician, born at - 
Copenhagen (1616,) declares that he once, by 
mistake, gave a patient a bottle of mere water 
instead of another bottle of liquor designed 
for an emetic, and that the patient's imagina- 
6* 



66 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

tion was so affected by the expectation, that 
the water produced the effect he intended. 

Franciscus Borri, born at Milan in the be- 
ginning of the seventeenth century, was said 
to cure all diseases, and so great was his repu- 
tation, that patients were carried to him from 
a great distance. But when it came to be 
observed that he cured only those who had a 
strong imagination, his credit sunk at once, 
and he worked no more wonders. A most 
remarkable example of the irresistible power 
of a disquieted mind is mentioned by Gregorius 
Leti, in his history of the Duke D'Ossuna. 
He tells us that a rich Neapolitan merchant, 
Jacob Morel, prided himself in not having once 
set his foot out of the city during forty-eight 
years. This coming to the ears of the Duke, 
Morel had notice sent to him that he was to 
take no journey out of the kingdom under the 
penalty of ten thousand crowns. The mer- 
chant smiled at receiving the order, but after- 
wards, not being able to fathom the reason of 
such a prohibition, grew so uneasy, that he 
paid the fine, and took a little trip out of the 
kingdom. 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



67 



Selden, in his "Table-Talk," mentions the 
case of a gentleman that had been in a pro- 
longed state of melancholy, whose malady I 
relieved, he says, by the following very simple 
expedient. "Perceiving his great confidence 
in me, and knowing that his complaint was 
rather fancied than real, I desired him to let 
me alone for a short time, and then come again, 
when I would give him directions, which, if 
faithfully followed, would cure him. In the 
meantime I got a card, and wrapped it- in a 
handsome piece of taffeta, to which I put 
strings, and when he came, gave it to him to 
hang about his neck. At the same time I 
charged him not to disorder himself with im- 
proper eating and drinking; take very little 
supper, attend as usual to his devotional duties 
as he went to bed, and in a short time he 
would be well. Three or four days after, I 
called upon him, and found him very much 
better, but perceiving that there was still a 
remnant of his mental disquiet, I gave him 
another string to hang about his neck. Three 
days after, he came to my office in the Temple, 
and professed that he was as well as he had 



68 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

ever been in his life, and thanked me for the 
care I had taken of him. The gentleman 
lived many years, and was never troubled 
after." 

Similar examples of the reflected influences 
of the mind and body on each other might 
be easily adduced to a much greater extent. 
We have indulged in our selections already 
to a profuseness perhaps, but the truths they 
illustrate cannot be presented in too many 
phases, nor too deeply impressed. It is a 
branch of the great subject of Moral Thera- 
peutics, which is too little studied by those 
who are charged with the health of either the 
body or of the soul. They may be read with 
advantage by many, as interesting psychologi- 
cal facts, and at the same time help to prepare 
them for the more interesting part of our 
inquiry — the illustrations of this connection 
between the outer and inner man, as fur- 
nished by 

III. CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 

We have already said, that it is a subject 
which is worthy the attention of all, whatever 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



69 



their character, moral or religious; but it is 
more particularly the case of the latter that 
this investigation contemplates. It is to show 
the influence of the mind and feelings upon 
the body, as well as the constant and yet often 
unsuspected actings of the flesh, with its un- 
numbered infirmities, upon the spirit; and that 
the devotional exercises of the latter are greatly 
affected by the physical condition of the for- 
mer. And if the foregoing observations have 
been uninteresting, or unintelligible to any, 
there are those who will understand us now. 
Here we strike a chord which will vibrate 
more or less in every changed heart that has 
been given to the study of its own exercises. 
No person accustomed to notice his various 
religious frames, can have failed to perceive 
that these are closely allied to what is usually 
denominated his " constitution." Is there such 
a blending of the juices of the animal economy 
as to produce what is called a nervous tem- 
perament, or that excess of bile which makes 
it melancholy'? Or is the man gentle or se- 
rene, sanguine or timid, cheerful or sad, you 



70 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

will find that these idiosyncrasies will not be 
merged and lost in the changes wrought by 
regenerating grace. His religion will not so 
neutralize and remove the cause of his lowness 
of spirits, his timidity, or whatever it may be 
that is peculiar to his nature, as to make him 
at all times cheerful and self-possessed. The 
bashful man will be a bashful Christian; and 
the bold man, constitutionally, will be bold in 
a state of grace. After all that the Spirit has 
accomplished in each, it will still be true in 
all, that the religious character will be tinc- 
tured by that of the natural man, as the liquor 
put into an old cask commonly receives a 
strong tang from the vessel. 

Quo semel est imbuta recens, servabit odorem 
Testa diu. 

The odours of the wine, that first shall stain 
The virgin vessel, it shall long retain. — Francis. 

In this respect the Spirit's operation on the 
soul has been happily compared to the work 
of a sculptor, who makes a statue of wood, 
of stone, or of marble, indifferently, according 
to the material put into his hand. So the 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



71 



Spirit, in forming the new man, still retains 
so much of the old as to make it evident what 
is the rock from which he was hewn. Nor is 
it a less interesting fact, that this gracious 
influence is so exerted in the various condi- 
tions of life where it is felt, as to qualify the 
soul for the appropriate duties of its particular 
station. Does regenerating grace find a man 
in high life or humble, in Caesar's household, 
among the fishermen of Galilee, or the ser- 
vants of Philemon, it requires no change in 
his place, but works a change on his heart, 
and gives new help to discharge his duties 
better. The same Holy Spirit who makes a 
Christian master gentle and prudent in com- 
manding, makes a Christian servant faithful 
and cheerful in obeying; as the astrologers 
said of Cyrus, that the same stars which made 
him to be chosen king amongst the armies of 
men when he came to be a man, made him 
to be chosen king among the shepherds' child- 
ren when he was a child. In rearing the New 
Testament temple of the Redeemer on earth, 
there is the same occasion for various gifts 



72 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

and kinds of service that there was in the 
magnificent structure of Solomon. And hence 
J;he innocent and useful differences between 
men, in their fallen state, are preserved and 
turned to a profitable account in their reco- 
very. See a familiar illustration of this in the 
original teachers of the gospel, or the twelve 
apostles. Simon Peter was by natural tem- 
perament ardent, sanguine, precipitate; and 
this characteristic of the natural man is con- 
tinually betraying itself after his conversion. 
You observe it in his conversations with his 
Master; his bold professions, hasty promises, 
which opened the way for his sifting by Satan, 
and his lamentable fall. After the resurrec- 
tion, see him running with John to visit the 
sepulchre; and while his timid and cautious 
companion stoops down at first, and only ven- 
tures to look into the place, the intrepid Peter 
rushes by and plunges into the gloomy abode 
of the dead, examines' the very spot where the 
sacred dust had rested, and the linen clothes 
in which it had been wrapped. Both of them 
regenerated men, and men perhaps of equal 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



73 



piety; but very unlike before their conversion, 
and scarcely more alike afterwards. Dr. Mason 
used to say, that the grace which would make 
John appear like an angel, would be only just 
enough to keep Peter from knocking a man 
down. 

Look next at Paul, whose lofty bearing, and 
undaunted courage by nature, was not a whit 
impaired, but only sanctified by grace, and 
retained to the end of his life. See Luther 
and Melancthon, as opposite in their Christian 
character as they were in their original tem- 
perament. "Melancthon," Cecil says, "is like 
a snail with his couple of horns ; he puts out 
his horns and feels — and feels — and feels. No 
education could have rendered these two men 
alike. Their difference began in the womb. 
Luther dashes in saying his things; Melanc- 
thon must go round about." The same divine 
influence had wrought effectually on the heart 
of both; yet, like the statue of which we 
spoke, the image corresponded to the material 
out of which it had been constructed. That 
any amount of spiritual influence should ever 
7 



74 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

destroy these physical characteristics and make 
men of such divers temperaments alike, is to 
be expected no more than that it should make 
them of one stature, or give them the same 
features or complexion. 

It will be recollected how Caesar recognizes 
the influence of temperament, when he ob- 
jected to Cassius, because he was "lean and 
thought too much." He wished to have around 
him 

Sleek headed men, and such as sleep o' nights. 
Would he were fatter. 

Such men as Cassius feared are usually 
"lean," because their "too much" thinking 
developes the brain and the nervous system at 
the expense of some function in the animal 
or organic. Men of this sort, according to 
Dr. Johnson, will be found thin and sallow, 
with weak digestion, and quickness or irrita- 
bility of nerve, like Lord Wellington or Bona- 
parte, till the latter became bloated by disease. 
Martin Luther's amazing executive powers 
were as closely connected with his physical 
qualities as with his moral. His great mind 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



75 



was lodged in a body which seemed to have 
been created for just such a tenant. His frame 
was large, well proportioned, athletic, and capa- 
ble of enduring, without fatigue, any amount 
of labour and privation. He was affable, hope- 
ful, and a stranger to those bodily ailments 
that so beset and embitter the life of the seden- 
tary and studious. Dr. Cox is reported to 
have said, that it was well that Luther was 
not a dyspeptic, for the Reformation would 
have been delayed, had he wanted a good 
digestion. 

But there are other, and in some respects 
more marked and painful illustrations, in the 
morbid experience of some Christians, which 
are at once an effect and a symptom of the 
state of their health. Rev. Timothy Rogers, 
a minister in London near the close of the 
seventeenth century, who was happily delivered 
from long affliction and great spiritual distress 
produced by this cause, describes the condition 
as one which is in every respect sad and over- 
whelming. In a letter to a friend he says, "It 
is a state of darkness that has no discernible 



76 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

beams of light. It is a land of darkness, on 
which no sun at all seems to shine. It does 
generally, indeed, first begin at the body, and 
then conveys its venom to the mind; and if 
anything could be found that might keep the 
blood and spirits in their due temper and 
motion, this would obstruct its further pro- 
gress, and in a great measure keep the soul 
clear." How many belong to that class who 
are familiarly said to look only at the dark 
side of every object, and are unwilling to 
engage in any enterprise, from an anticipa- 
tion of its failure. Whether the happiness of 
this world or the next be their pursuit, the 
prospect is cheered by scarcely a ray of hope. 
Such a tendency to gloom is a thorn in the 
fleshy by which they are often tormented; nor 
is any class more exposed to the buffetings 
of this minister of Satan, than the teachers 
of religion. How often do we witness the sad 
spectacle of those whose manifold bodily in- 
firmities, brought on by sedentary habits, great 
anxiety /or excessive study and exhaustion of 
sensorial power, defraud them of all the conso- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 77 

lations of that benignant system of faith which 
they are enabled to expound so successfully to 
others. Instead of an open, cheerful expres- 
sion of countenance, we often see a wrinkled, 
contracted, sinister look, which speaks any- 
thing but in favour of the benign religion of 
the gospel. Thus, Christianity itself is made 
to suffer from the physical sufferings of its 
professors and expounders. The light-minded 
and thoughtless imbibe a prejudice against it, 
from observing the care-worn and sorrowful 
features of some of its advocates. They think 
it to be a legitimate effect of their principles, 
and are made to shun the places, and books, 
and people, whose influence appears to be so 
detrimental to all earthly enjoyment. Unhap- 
pily, these outward tokens of disquietude are 
but too significant of what is passing within. 
If the face be covered with gloom, it is only 
an index of the state of such a Christian's 
heart, when in the retirement of his closet he 
pours out its exercises in lamentations, and 
confessions of sin, and supplications for relief. 
At one time, he feels that he has grieved the 



78 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

Spirit, that his best services are only hypo- 
critical forms, and surely God has forsaken 
him. His heart appears like the nether mill- 
stone, and his bosom the cage of every unclean 
bird. The arrows of the Almighty are within 
him, the poison whereof drinketh up his spirit, 
and the terrors of God do set themselves in 
array against him. Again the scene is wholly 
changed; the turbid current of his thoughts 
has become clear as crystal. The rain is over 
and gone, and the time of the singing of birds 
is come. The change in his exercises is like 
the transition from the terrific tempest to the 
serene sky, and air, and pleasant sun, that fol- 
low it. Or ever he is aware, his soul makes him 
like the chariots of Amminadib. His doubts are 
solved, his fears are gone, and his present joys 
perhaps are in proportion to his previous sad- 
ness. He is brought into Christ's banqueting 
house, and the banner over him is love. He is 
stayed with flagons and comforted with apples, 
and restored to the joys of salvation. 

That such spiritual fluctuations as these, to 
which so many Christians are subject, are very 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



79 



often produced by physical causes, is as capable 
of proof, as it is that an excited pulse and 
increased heat are symptoms of fever. They 
are the reflected influence of some bodily mal- 
ady upon the soul. They arise, as Rev. Dr. 
J. R. McDuff says, from a diseased body, an 
overstrung mind — a succession of calamities, 
weakening and impairing the nervous system. 
We know how susceptible are the body and 
mind together, of being affected by external 
influences. Of that constitution which, in our 
ignorance, we call union of soul and body, we 
know little respecting what is cause and what 
is effect. We would fain believe that the 
mind has power over the body; but it is just 
as true that the body rules the mind. Causes 
apparently the most trivial — a heated room, 
want of exercise, a sunless day, a northern 
aspect — will make all the difference between 
happiness and unhappiness; between faith and 
doubt; between courage and indecision. To 
our fancy there is something humiliating in 
being thus at the mercy of our animal or- 
ganism. We would fain find nobler causes 



80 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

for our emotions. But many of those sighs 
and tears, and morbid, depressed feelings which 
Christians speak of as the result of spiritual 
darkness and the desertion of God, are merely 
the result of physical derangement ; the penalty 
often for the violation of the laws of health. 
The atmosphere we breathe is enough to ac- 
count for them. They come and go, rise and 
fall, with the mercury in the tube. These are 
cases not for the spiritual, but for the bodily 
physician. Their cure is in attendance to the 
usual laws and prescriptions which regulate 
the healthy action of the bodily functions. 
We once knew a man of superior natural gifts 
and piety, an officer of the church, who suf- 
fered occasionally from such a cause. The 
effect on his devotional feelings was so marked, 
that you could discover the state of his health 
in his prayers. They were always excellent 
and edifying, yet there was at times a subdued 
manner, or a sadness, which indicated the in- 
fluence of bodily infirmity, and of the struggle 
of the soul to resist the tendency. 

Many have discovered that their periods of 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



81 



spiritual depression are always contempora- 
neous with periodical changes in their physical 
condition, or with that sort of indisposition 
which proceeds from gastric derangement or 
an affection of the liver. How many thou- 
sands are daily affected by changes in the 
atmosphere, scarcely less than was Dr. Francia, 
Dictator of Paraguay, whose most extravagant 
outbreaks of passion, and cruel exertions of 
despotic power, generally occurred during his 
seasons of hypochondria, which were most fre- 
quent when the wind was north-east, but which 
ended with a change to south-west, when he 
would begin to sing and laugh to himself, and 
was readily accessible. Sir Woodbine Parish 
informs us, in his narrative of a visit to Buenos 
Ayres, that a sort of moral derangement pre- 
vails when the wind blows from the north; 
that quarrels and bloodshed are much more 
frequent at such times than at any other. He 
relates that a gentleman of amiable manners 
under ordinary circumstances, was so affected 
by this wind, that whenever it prevailed, he 
would quarrel with any one he met; and he 



82 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

was at last executed for murder, after having 
been engaged in street-fights, with knives, at 
least twenty times. 

The cases in which this sort of morbid suf- 
fering is exemplified are so numerous, that 
their name is Legion. They find that their 
state while here "is a conjunction of their 
soul to a frail distempered body, and so near 
a conjunction, that the actions of the soul must 
have great dependence on the body. Its ap- 
prehensions of spiritual good are limited by 
the frailty of the body, and the soul can go 
no higher than the body will allow.' 5 "We 
have known instances in which the seasons of 
spiritual joy and depression alternated like an 
intermittent disease, coming and departing at 
regular intervals. In the church of the late 
Dr. Spencer, of Brooklyn, New York, was an 
excellent female, whose " mind was found to 
be shrouded in darkness and gloom. After 
many conversations held at different times for 
months, one day I called upon her," he says, 
" and to my surprise found her calm, and that 
her distress of spirit had given place to glad- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



S3 



ness. But three days after this, her light had 
departed and she had relapsed into her former 
state of despair. Not long after, she became 
hopeful and happy for a little season, and then 
as depressed and sorrowful as ever. These 
alternations from gloom to gladness were inex- 
plicable, until I was able to connect them with 
the state of her bodily health. "When I men- 
tioned the cause to her, she admitted the coin- 
cidence between the coming of pain into her 
head and the departure of her spiritual peace; 
but this explanation seemed credible only dur- 
ing her intervals of peace, which at length 
became short. In the morning she was always 
hopeful, but every afternoon in despair. In 
the morning she believed that her afternoon 
distress was caused by her bodily infirmity, 
but would entirely disbelieve it in the after- 
noon. At length the morbid bodily state 
which had so affected her mind was changed. 
The light of Christian hope and joy were no 
longer withdrawn. Her death was peaceful, 
without a doubt of a happy immortality." 
During Mr. Cecil's protracted sickness of 



81 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

three years, the state of his mind fluctuated 
with his malady. Its principal effect was ap- 
parent in throwing a cloud over his comfort. 
He was precisely like a man laden with a 
heavy weight. As the load was lightened, he 
began to think, feel, exert and enjoy himself 
in his natural manner. When the burden was 
increased, he sank down again under the op- 
pression. Sometimes these intermissions are 
much more prolonged, as in the case of the 
late excellent and venerable Dr. James Hall, 
of North Carolina, who was of a melancholy 
temperament; and after finishing his education 
at Princeton he fell into a gloomy dejection, 
which interrupted his studies and labours for 
more than a year. After his restoration he 
laboured successfully and comfortably in the 
ministry many years, even to old age; but at 
last was overtaken again, and entirely over- 
whelmed by this terrible malady. "Of all 
men that I ever saw," Dr. A. Alexander says, 
"he had the tenderest sympathy with persons 
labouring under religious despondency. When 
on a journey, I have known him to travel 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



miles out of his way to converse with a suf- 
ferer of this kind; and his manner was most 
tender and affectionate in speaking to such." 

A venerable clergyman, who had suffered 
greatly from nervous affections, discovered this 
to be characteristic of his own experience; that 
when the period of gloom and distress did not 
terminate for two or three weeks, it would in 
the meantime recur only every other day. But 
the more common cases are those in which 
the cloud, when gathered, remains suspended 
and unmoved for days or weeks, with scarcely 
a gleam of sunshine. Such a sufferer was the 
late eminently learned and pious Isaac Milner, 
Dean of Carlisle, whose extraordinary talents 
and attainments in science were conceded by 
all, and whose genuine piety was questioned 
by none but himself. And yet, while the 
source of so much light and spiritual instruc- 
tion to others, he was often an opaque and 
cheerless body to himself. "Though I have 
endeavoured to discharge my duty as well as 
I could," he writes to Mr. Wilberforce, "yet 
sadness and melancholy of heart stick close 
8 



86 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

"by and increase upon me. I tell nobody, but 
I am very much sunk indeed, and I wish I 
could have the relief of weeping as I used to 
do." Again, in writing to another, a clerical 
friend, he says, "My views have of late been 
exceedingly dark and distressing; in a word, 
Almighty God seems to hide his face. I en- 
trust the secret hardly to any earthly being. 
I know not what will become of me. There 
is doubtless a good deal of bodily affection 
mingled with this, but it is not all so. I bless 
God, however, that I never lose sight of the 
cross; and though I should die without seeing 
any personal interest in the Redeemer's merits, 
I think, I hope, that I should be found at his 
feet. I will thank you for a word at your 
leisure. My door is bolted at the time of my 
writing this, for I am full of tears." Such 
spiritual sadness is easily accounted for, when 
it is understood that Dr. Milner was for up- 
wards of forty years a victim of some of the 
most distressing complaints that flesh is heir 
to. Spasms in his stomach, severe and unin- 
terrupted headaches, oppression of the breath, 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



87 



broken slumbers, disturbed by frightful dreams, 
were among the diseases which caused his 
physicians to tell him, many years before his 
death, that with such a pulse as his, a man's 
life was not worth one minute. 

Another example is furnished by Richard 
Baxter, in whose practical and devotional wri- 
tings it is easy to discover the constitutional 
habits and qualities of the man. No person, 
not inspired, ever wrote more graphically of 
heaven and hell, as if he had visited both, and 
had come back to the earth again to exhort 
men to seek the one and escape the other. 
But, notwithstanding his pre-eminent piety, 
during his early years his mind was greatly 
troubled with doubts about his own salvation, 
promoted, says his biographer, by the par- 
ticular cast of his mind, and the state of his 
body. And, though habitually under the go- 
vernment of religious principles, it is well 
known that he had certain besetting infirmi- 
ties of temper, which are among the most 
common diagnostics of what were some of his 
manifold diseases. The late Dr. Payson was 



88 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

another, whose vibrations of Christian feeling, 
from the joyous to the sad, the cheerful to the 
desponding and melancholy, are scarcely less 
notorious than were his uncommon zeal and 
ministerial success. The cause is at once 
explained, when his biographer tells us that 
his physical conformation was of a very deli- 
cate structure, extremely sensitive, and easily 
excited, so that nervous irritability and conse- 
quent depression were an ingredient in his 
nature. Hence, he adds, we have seen him 
writing bitter things against himself, for causes 
which, with a different temperament, would 
have given him little uneasiness. The case of 
David Brainerd, the apostolic missionary, is in 
some respects more marked and instructive on 
this subject than even Payson's. But it is 
easy to make the almost opposite and contra- 
dictory details of his diary harmonize with one 
another, and both with eminent godliness, 
when the writer of his Memoirs, President 
Edwards, tells us of his frail health, and of 
his constitutional proneness to dejection and 
melancholy. His willing spirit would have 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



89 



made him a rival of Paul, but under the weak- 
ness of his flesh he sunk before he reached 
the age of thirty. 

Such illustrations need not be multiplied, 
and yet we cannot forbear to advert, for a 
moment, before we pass on, to the touching 
case of one in whose character there is an 
abiding interest, which affords a guaranty that 
the repetition, even of that which is familiarly 
known, will not be tiresome. And perhaps 
within the range of casuistic research, we 
could not find a more affecting instance of 
morbid religious affection, than that of Cow- 
per. How long his mind was shrouded in 
darkness, and racked with the most fearful 
forebodings, is as widely known as is his 
name. In one of his somewhat playful moods, 
when writing to the Rev. John Newton, " my 
thoughts," he says, " are clad in a sober livery, 
for the most part as grave as that of a bishop's 
servant. They turn, too, upon spiritual sub- 
jects; but the tallest fellow, and the loudest 
among them all, is he who is continually cry- 
ing out with a loud voice, actum est de te, 
8* 



90 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

periisti — It is all over, you are lost." But what 
was the state of his mind for many years, is 
nowhere described in more affecting terms 
than in the last original poem which he ever 
wrote, and which he called the Castaw r ay. It 
was founded on an incident mentioned in Lord 
Anson's Voyages, which he had read many 
years before, though the concluding stanzas 
show that the real subject of his muse was 
not the sufferer mentioned by Anson: for hav- 
ing described the case of the unhappy mariner, 
his being washed headlong from on board, 

Of friends, of hope, of all bereft ; 

his sinking beneath the "Avhelming brine;" 
then rising to the surface, struggling among 
the waves, his crying for help, the efforts made 
to save him, the mournful sound of his voice, 
heard in every blast by his comrades, as the 
ship was driven farther and farther from him, 
till they 

Could catch the sound no more; 

when, overcome at length, and exhausted, he 
sunk; the poet then adds: 

I therefore purpose not, or dream, 
Descanting on his fate, 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



9-1 



To give the melancholy theme 

A more enduring date; 
But misery delights to trace 
Its semblance in another's case. 

No voice divine the storm allayed, 

No light propitious shone ; 

When snatched from all effectual aid, 

We perish'd each alone; 
But I beneath a rougher sea, 
Am whelm'd in deeper gulfs than he. 

That the cause of Cowper's spiritual depres- 
sion was disease, has been abundantly proved 
to all, unless it be those " who would far 
sooner tolerate a poet's being a madman than 
his being a saint." His despondency was pro- 
duced by physical causes, which could not be 
removed by reasoning, any more than a head- 
ache or a paroxysm of the gout. So the suf- 
ferer himself appears to believe, as is more 
than implied in the following extract from 
one of his letters: — "The mind of man is not 
a fountain, but a cistern, and mine, God knows, 
a broken one. Sally Perry's case has given 
us much concern; I have no doubt it is dis- 
temper. But distresses of mind that are occa- 
sioned by distemper are the most difficult of 



92 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

all to deal with. They refuse all consola- 
tion; they will hear no reason. God only, 
by his own immediate impressions, can relieve 
them, as after an experience of thirteen years' 
misery I can abundantly testify." Like other 
valetudinarians of a particular class, his nerves 
were as sensitive to atmospheric changes as 
is the mercury of the barometer. He was 
joyful or sad, as the day was serene or cloudy. 
"I rise cheerless or distressed," says he to one 
of his friends, "and brighten as the sun goes 
on." He had his four seasons of feeling, as 
the revolving earth described the four grand 
stages of the sun's progress in the ecliptic. 
Thus, in another of his letters, he says: "I 
now see a long winter before me, and am to 
get through it as I can. I know the ground 
before I tread upon it: it is hollow: it is 
agitated; it suffers shocks in every direction; 
it is like the soil of Calabria— all whirlpool 
and undulation. But I must reel through it ; 
at least, if I be not swallowed up by the 
way." 

In a brief notice of Cowper by Mr. Cecil, 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



93 



he alludes to an " unfounded report" in circu- 
lation, that the poet's melancholy was derived 
from his residence and connection at Olney. 
The fact, however, Mr. Cecil says, was just 
the reverse, as was attested both by respect- 
able living witnesses, and by manuscripts of 
Cowper's own writing at the calmest period 
of his life. Many years before, and shortly 
after he began the study of law, he had a 
fearful attack, which was alleviated by reading 
the Gothic and uncouth poems of pious George 
Herbert. This relief, however, was only for 
a season. His thoughts were constantly tend- 
ing back towards the same turbid channel 
from which they had been diverted. Then 
again he would be tempted to all sorts of 
evil — to murmuring against Providence, scep- 
ticism, disgust of life, and even to suicide. 
And yet, whenever relief came, even for a sea- 
son, it was attended with a renewed interest 
in the Bible, and a lively faith in its distin- 
guishing doctrines. The longest and happiest 
period of his life was at St. Albans, under 
the care of Dr. Cotton, a physician as capable 



94 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

of administering to the spiritual as to the 
natural maladies of his patients. The vast 
black wall which he represented as visibly 
erected between himself and heaven, Dr. Moore 
says, was some impediment to the right action 
of his brain in relation to thought and sight. 
His disease was kept up by monotony and 
medicine. There were none but quackish at- 
tempts at cure, e except while under the care 
of Dr. Cotton, who for a time relieved, and, 
had his advice been properly followed out, 
would have probably cured him. It was from 
his treatment that Cowper first obtained a 
clear view of those sublime and animating 
truths which so distinguished and exalted his 
future strains as a poet. Here also he re- 
ceived that settled tranquillity and peace, 
which he enjoyed for several years afterwards. 
So far, therefore, was his constitutional malady 
from being produced or increased by his evan- 
gelical connections, either at St. Albans or at 
Olney, that he seems never to have had any 
settled peace but from the truths learned in 
these societies. It appears that among them 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



95 



alone he found the only sunshine he ever 
enjoyed through " the cloudy day of his 
afflicted life." While residing with this ex- 
cellent friend, his distress was for a long time 
entirely removed by the passage in Romans: 
Him hath God set forth to he a propitiation, 
through faith in his blood, to declare his right- 
eousness for the remission of sins that are past. 
In this scripture he saw the remedy which 
God provides for the relief of a guilty con- 
science, with such clearness, that, for several 
years after, his heart was filled with love, and 
his life occupied with prayer, praise, and doing 
good to all as he had opportunity. Mr. New- 
ton told me, Cecil says, that from Cowper's 
first coming to Olney, it was observed he had 
studied his Bible with such advantage, and 
was so well acquainted with its design, that 
not only his troubles were removed, but that 
to the end of his life he never had clearer 
views of the peculiar doctrines of the gospel 
than now when he first became an habitual 
hearer of them. That during this period the 
inseparable attendants of a lively faith ap- 



96 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

peared, by his exerting himself to the utmost 
of his power in every benevolent service he 
could render to his poor neighbours ; and that 
Mr. Newton used to consider him as a sort 
of curate, from his constant attendance upon 
the sick and afflicted in that large and neces- 
sitous parish. 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



97 



CHAPTER II. 

USES OF KNOWLEDGE ON THIS SUBJECT. 

I was a stricken deer, that left the herd 

Long since. With many an arrow deep infixed 

My panting sides were charged. — Cowper. 

Though the character of this discussion, as 
well as its limited scope, have precluded many 
important remarks which come within the 
province of the physiologist, yet much that 
might be written is rendered unnecessary, by 
a knowledge which many derive from their 
own experience. It is a subject which, as we 
have said before, is too little examined and 
understood. "Many of our young preachers," 
Dr. Alexander says, in his instructive book 
on Religious Experience, " when they go forth 
on their important errand, are poorly qualified 
to direct the doubting conscience, or to ad- 
minister safe consolation to the troubled in 
9 



98 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

spirit. And in modern preaching there is 
little account made of the various distressing 
cases of deep affliction under which many 
serious persons are suffering. To no small 
proportion of the religious, both teachers and 
people, it seems to be a profound secret, how 
much the exercises of a changed heart may- 
be affected by the health or the condition 
of the body." They cannot understand how 
a man's brain and nervous system may so 
suffer from faults in his digestive organs, as 
to produce irritability of temper, unsteadi- 
ness in any pursuit or application, distrust of 
friends, fear of evil tidings, and doubts con- 
cerning his own salvation. These are com- 
monly regarded as moral affections, whereas 
they are in reality physical evils, which are 
to be remedied or removed by physical means. 
They are as legitimately symptoms of disease 
as is nausea, dimness of vision, or headache. 
And is a man unable to judge himself, much 
less is he qualified to meet the numerous cases 
that are almost daily presented in an exten- 
sive pastoral charge, when unskilled to distin- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



09 



guish, with some degree of accuracy, between 
influences which proceed from the body, and 
the principles, disposition, and state of the 
soul. As a part of his furniture for some of 
the most responsible labours of his calling, he 
needs a thorough acquaintance with a subject 
so closely connected with Christian experience. 

Among the counsellors who so much aided 
the Rev. Timothy Rogers in his period of spi- 
ritual darkness, he quotes old Mr. Greenham as 
saying "that there is a great deal of wisdom 
requisite to consider both the state of the body 
and of the soul. If a man that is troubled in 
conscience comes to a minister, it may be he 
will look all to the soul, and nothing to the 
body; if he cometh to a physician, he con- 
sidered the body, and neglecteth the soul. 
For my part, I would never have the physi- 
cian's counsel despised, nor the labour of the 
minister neglected; because the soul and body 
dwelling together, it is convenient that as the 
soul should be cured by the word, by prayer, 
by fasting, or by comforting, so the body must 
be brought into some temperature by physic 



100 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

and diet, by harmless diversions, and such like 
ways — providing always, that it be so done in 
the fear of God, as not to think by these ordi- 
nary means quite to smother or evade our 
troubles, but to use them as preparatives, 
whereby our souls may be made more capable 
of the spiritual methods that are to follow 
afterwards." 

The practical uses of the knowledge of 
which we come to speak now, cannot be fully 
enumerated, nor adequately described. As the 
apostle says of the inspired truth which he 
commends to Timothy, we w T ould say, that it 
"is profitable for" 

Doctrine. 

We mean to say, that here is presented a 
theory in casuistic divinity which solves in- 
numerable cases of constant occurrence, by 
which many are often confounded without it. 
It is admitted that there is a difficulty to be 
encountered, in turning such doctrine on the 
subject of our spiritual maladies to a benefi- 
cial result, on account of the inability to con- 
vince the sufferer of the real cause of his 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



101 



despondency. He seems to lack the capacity 
of perceiving, or of applying the sort of truth 
which his case requires, however plainly it 
may be set before him; for, as President Ed- 
wards observes, in speaking of Brainerd, it is 
rare that melancholy people are sensible of 
their own disease — and that such things are 
to be ascribed to it as are undoubtedly its 
genuine fruits or effects. Otherwise we should 
be amazed at the perplexity and clisconsolate- 
ness of some excellent characters, and the 
readiness with which they refuse to be com- 
forted. Even the acute and discriminating 
Dr. Rush, so skilful in explaining and reliev- 
ing the maladies of others, was utterly de- 
ceived in relation to his own. His Essay on 
the Influence of Physical Causes upon the 
Moral Faculty, evinces mature reflection, and 
accurate knowledge on this subject; and yet, 
when, in a state of religious despondency him- 
self, he was assured by his pastor that it was 
a symptom of disease, he could not believe it. 
Nor did he become fully convinced that the 
cause of his spiritual distress was physical, 
9* 



102 INFLUENCE OE HEALTH AND DISEASE 

until it had been removed by the improvement 
of his general health. Indeed it is commonly 
found, that where mental depression results 
from impaired health, our attempts to relieve 
the mind by counsel tend rather to aggravate 
its sorrow, so long as the physical cause re- 
mains unmitigated. The Rev. Thomas Boston 
was, at one time, in such a state of doubt and 
spiritual depression during his ministry, with- 
out perceiving the cause, that he was tempted 
to give it up. But although this eminent 
Christian scholar was in so great darkness 
himself, he was a burning and a shining light 
to others. His exposition of Providence, under 
the quaint title of "Crook in the Lot," sur- 
passes any work of the kind in our language. 
"I do not know that I could point out a 
work," Dr. A. Alexander says, "which is so 
well adapted to reconcile the afflicted saint to 
his lot in this world, and help him to improve 
the dealings of Providence towards him, espe- 
cially in the 'dark and cloudy day 5 of adver- 
sity." 

A late preacher, well known by his manifold 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



103 



useful labours, writes in his diary: — "Many of 
my people, and especially females, talk thus to 
me — 'I am under continual distress of mind; 
I can lay hold of no permanent ground of 
peace. If I seem to get a little, it is soon 
gone again. I am out at sea, without compass 
or anchor. My heart sinks, my spirit faints, 
my knees tremble; all is dark above, and all 
is horror beneath. 5 'And pray, what is your 
mode of life 1 ? 3 'I sit by myself. 5 'In this 
small room, I suppose, and over your fire? 5 
' A considerable part of my time. 5 ' And what 
time do you go to bed] 5 'I cannot retire till 
two or three o'clock in the morning. 5 'And 
you lie late, I suppose, in the morning V c Fre- 
quently. 5 'And pray what else can you ex- 
pect from this mode of life than a relaxed 
and unstrung system, and, of course, a mind 
enfeebled, anxious, and disordered] I under- 
stand your case; God seems to have qualified 
me to understand it, by special dispensations. 
My natural disposition is gay, volatile, spirited. 
My nature would never sink. But I have 
sometimes felt my spirit absorbed in horrible 



104 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

apprehensions, without any assignable natural 
cause. Perhaps it was necessary I should be 
suffered to feel this, that I might feel for 
others; for certainly no man can have any 
adequate sympathy with others, who has never 
thus suffered himself. I can feel for you, 
therefore, while I tell you that I think the 
affair with you is chiefly physical. I myself 
have brought on the same feelings by the same 
means. I have sat in my study till I have 
persuaded myself that the ceiling was too low 
to suffer me to stand and rise upright, and air 
and exercise alone could remove the impres- 
sion from my mind.' " 

In the last illness of the commentator Scott, 
his mind was observed by his friends to be 
gloomy during the paroxysm of his fever; nor 
could his comfort be restored by any counsel 
of his pious attendants, until the fever had 
abated. Andrew Fuller also suffered greatly 
on his deathbed, from a similar cause. So 
when Dr. Madan once attempted to calm the 
mind of Cowper, by quotations from the Scrip- 
tures, it served only to increase his sufferings. 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



105 



It was then at the commencement of a slow 
nervous fever, to which he was liable; but after 
four months skilful treatment by Dr. Cotton, 
his health was so far improved that the pro- 
mises of the gospel were apprehended without 
hesitation, and whatever his friend Maclan had 
said to him long before, revived in all its 
clearness. An aged minister of the gospel 
says, we have known persons, who were poor 
in spirit, hungering and thirsting after right- 
eousness, glorying only in the cross of Christ, 
and yet gloomily concluding that they have 
no lot nor part in the matter, and that their 
heart is not right with God. And why? The 
reason is to be found in something beyond 
the preacher's province; and till there is a 
change in the animal economy, all the succours 
of religion are in vain. 

In an admirable review of a paper on Moral 
Causes of Disease, by the Secretary of the 
Royal Academy of Medicine in Paris, the au- 
thor reproaches his medical brethren for their 
ignorance or neglect. He chides them for 
the overlooking of psychological causes of dis- 



106 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

ease, and of the influence of mental emotions 
on its development, its progress, and its termi- 
nation. " If a patient dies," he says, " we open 
his body, rummage the viscera, and scrutinize 
most narrowly all the organs and tissues, in 
the hope of discovering lesions of some one 
sort or another. There is not a small mem- 
brane, cavity, nor follicle, which is not care- 
fully examined. One thing only escapes our 
attention, which is this — we are looking at 
merely organic effects, forgetting all the while 
that we must mount higher up, to discover 
their causes. These organic alterations are 
observed, perhaps, in the body of a person who 
has suffered deeply from mental distress and 
anxiety, which have been the energetic cause 
of his decay; but they cannot be studied in 
the laboratory, nor in the amphitheatre." An- 
other profitable use of this subject is, for the 
promotion of 
Charity. 

So far as it is understood and practically 
felt, it will make us pause before we censure 
those of our brethren whose condition rather 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



107 



claims our condolence and hearty commisera- 
tion. We think them morose, hypochondriac, 
or misanthropic; assail them with raillery and 
banter, and anon with reproof for feelings of 
sadness, which they can no more resist nor 
control, than they can prevent a flushed cheek 
in fever, or a yellow skin in jaundice. We 
might as well jeer at Dr. Watts for his pigmy 
size, at Pope for his deformity, or at Milton 
for his blindness. Dr. John Cheyne says, that 
of all the miseries which afflict human life, or 
relate principally to the body in this valley 
of tears, I think " nervous disorders, in their 
extreme and last degree," are the most de- 
plorable, and beyond all comparison the worst. 
And yet there are many in society, even among 
the intelligent, who are accustomed to treat all 
such cases of nervous disorder, as only imagi- 
nary complaints, which are better managed by 
ridicule than by sober counsel, whether medi- 
cal or religious. In order to cure them, they 
think it necessary only to divert the attention 
of the sufferer, and convince him that he will 
be well enough and recover his lost cheerful- 



108 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

ness, if he will but cease to brood over his 
own wretchedness, mix in society, and think 
of other things beside himself. "Many will 
say to such an one, 'Why do you so pore 
over your case, and thus gratify the devil] 9 
Whereas it is the very nature of the disease 
to cause such fixed musing. You might as 
well say to a man in a fever, 6 Why are you 
not well? why will you be sick]' Some, in- 
deed, suppose that the melancholy hug their 
disease and are unwilling to give it up. You 
might as well suppose that a man would be 
pleased with lying on a bed of thorns." The 
reason of their utter misapprehension of such 
cases, is their own happy exemption from all 
that sort of morbid wretchedness which they 
treat with so much levity in others, without 
knowing what they do. To persons of this 
description, moreover, all our disquisitions on 
the moral effect of physical causes, are much 
like a treatise in Tamul or Hindostanee: they 
have no just conception of our meaning, nor 
of the utility of what we say. Nor is it 
among the lighter afflictions of the subjects 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 109 

of nervous affections, that they receive so little 
charity or sympathy from others whose gene- 
ral intelligence, and especially religious pre- 
tensions, would warrant them to expect more 
courtesy at least, if not greater tenderness. 
"It is a foolish course which some take with 
their melancholy friends, to answer all their 
complaints and moans with this — that it is 
nothing but fancy; nothing but imagination 
and whimsey. It is a real disease, a real 
misery, that they are tormented with; and if 
it be a fancy, yet a diseased fancy is as great 
a disease as any other; it fills them with an- 
guish and tribulation. But this so disordered 
fancy is the consequent of a greater evil, and 
one of the sad effects that are produced by 
that black humour that has vitiated all the 
natural spirits. These afflicted persons can 
never possibly believe that you pity them, or 
that you are heartily concerned for them, if 
you do not credit what they say; and truly it 
often falls out, that because melancholy persons 
do not always look very ill, or have pretty 
good stomachs, and do not at first very much 
10 



110 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 



decline in their bodies, other persons, that 
know nothing of the distemper, are apt to 
think that they make themselves worse than 
they are." But if our subject is unintelligible 
to some, it is not so to others; we describe an 
experience with which they are wofully famil- 
iar; and while they are not slow to condemn 
themselves for their fretfulness, irritability of 
temper, and many obliquities of feeling and 
conduct which they so frequently betray, yet 
their faults, however numerous, will be judged 
with least severity by those who best under- 
stand the cause. With nerves so disordered 
and unstrung, there is need of far more vigi- 
lance and prayer, to even appear cheerful and 
amiable, than most good men, without very 
special grace, are able to maintain. "A man 
may be a good performer, but what can he do 
with a disordered instrument] The occupant 
of a house may have good eyes, but how can 
he see accurately through a soiled window? 
Let the organ be put in tune, and the glass be 
made clean, before you call in question the 
musical skill of the one, or the eyesight of 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



Ill 



the other." Harsh speeches may fret, perplex, 
and enrage, but will never do the sufferers 
any good. In his excellent counsels on the 
subject of spiritual depression, Mr. Rogers 
says: — "Some indeed will advise you to chide 
and rebuke them upon all occasions; but I 
dare confidently say, such advisers never felt 
this disease; for if they had, they would know 
that by such a method they do but pour oil 
into the flame, and chafe and exasperate their 
wounds instead of healing them. Mr. Dod, by 
reason of his mild, meek, and merciful spirit, 
was reckoned one of the fittest persons to deal 
with people thus afflicted. Never was any 
minister more tender and compassionate. If 
you would be serviceable to such persons, you 
must not vex them with tart and rigorous dis- 
course. It causes many poor souls to cherish 
and conceal their troubles, to their greater tor- 
ment, because they meet with so very harsh 
entertainment from those to whom they have 
begun to explain their case. Our blessed Lord 
and principal Physician, was meek and lowly, 
and would not break the bruised reed, nor 



112 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

quench the smoking flax. And the first visit 
that the forementionecl Mr. Dod made to Mr. 
Peacock in his anguish, was to put him in 
mind of God's kindness. 

Sunt verba et voces, quibus hune lenire dolorem 
Passis, et magnam morbi deponere partem. — Hon. Epist. 
The power of words and soothing sounds can ease 
The raging pain and lessen the disease. — Francis. 

Another most important use of this subject 
is for 

Reproof and Correction. 

"When thoroughly examined and well under- 
stood, it exposes and explodes the popular 
error in relation to those disordered states of 
the mind that are supposed by many to be 
produced by religion. Such events are deplor- 
able whenever they occur, and whatever the 
occasion; but it would certainly be a remark- 
able exception to the general doctrines of phi- 
losophy as well as of religion, if it could be 
proved that these are the legitimate effect of 
so pure and benignant a cause. " This one 
thing I must testify," Dr. Alexander says, " that 
I never knew the most pungent convictions of 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 113 

sin to terminate in insanity; and as to the 
affections of love to God and the lively hope 
of everlasting life producing insanity, it is too 
absurd for any one to believe it." We readily 
concede that this belongs to a legion of evils, 
intellectual and moral, as well as physical, 
which are the natural product of fanaticism 
and superstition; and this explains the fact, 
that before the revolution so large a propor- 
tion of the insane in France were monks. In- 
deed, it is difficult to account for many of the 
effects of enthusiasm in any other way, than 
by supposing it to be a species of insanity in 
which the aberration relates usually to one 
subject, while in others the judgment is sound. 
And it is perfectly obvious, that the greatly 
multiplied cases of this kind of mental dis- 
order at the present time, in different parts 
of our country, are the offspring of certain 
epidemical delusions by which we have been 
sorely afflicted of late, and which have been 
promoted by nothing so much as by the notice 
of others, and especially their attempts to sup- 
press them by coercion. But we are sustained, 
10* 



114 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

not by the highest medical authority only, but 
by a faithful examination of the statistics of 
insanity, when we assert that the hallucina- 
tions of those persons whose mental disorder is 
imputed to religion, " are the result of pre- 
existing disease, and only take their form from 
the accidental habits and feelings of the pa- 
tients." This has been so fully demonstrated, 
that scarcely any modern writer of eminence 
advocates the opposite opinion. From the 
numerous authors whose testimony is easily 
accessible, we will quote a paragraph from two 
or three, who are in the highest repute. 

Dr. George Moore, member of the Royal 
College of Physicians, London, says: "That 
bodily disorder which favours the manifestation 
of the mind in an insane manner, may be 
produced by any of our passions when unre- 
strained by a holy understanding. The best 
blessings may thus be converted into curses; 
the best gifts into the most injurious agents. 
Some say religion is a frequent cause of in- 
sanity. No; true religion is the spirit of love, 
of power, and of a sound mind; ever active 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



115 



in diversified duties and delights; always busy 
in a becoming manner, and in decent order. 
But the wild notions, unmeaning superstitions, 
spiritual bondage, unrequired and forbidden 
attempts to reconcile the rites and ceremonies 
which wayward men have substituted for the 
liberty of God, begin in disobedience and end 
in darkness. It is strange fire in the censer 
which brings down the flaming vengeance, and 
opens a passage to the infinite abyss." 

Of those subjects of what is called religious 
melancholy, or religious madness, who come 
under medical treatment, Dr. Ashbel Green 
says: "It is undeniable that the greater part 
are such as would previously be termed irreli- 
gious persons. Their religious anxiety has com- 
menced with their mental aberration, and has 
disappeared on the restoration of health. In 
such cases, though the apprehension of divine 
anger may not seem unreasonable, it is as 
really an illusion as if the despondency had 
assumed the most alarming type. In fact, 
where religious anxiety or excitement has any 
share in producing mental aberration, this will 



116 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

generally put on the form of irreligious pro- 
faneness, or something contradictory of the 
previous healthful state of mind." 

In regard to what are called the moral 
causes of insanity, Dr. Abercrombie says: "I 
suspect there has been a good deal of fallacy, 
arising from considering as a moral cause, that 
which was really a part of the disease. This, 
I think, applies in a peculiar manner to the 
important subject of religion, which by a com- 
mon but very loose method of speaking, is 
often mentioned as a cause of insanity. But 
where there is a constitutional tendency to 
insanity, or to melancholy, one of its leading 
modifications, every subject is distorted to 
which the mind can be directed; and none 
more frequently or more remarkably, than reli- 
gious belief. This, however, is the effect, not 
the cause; and the various forms which it 
assumes may be ascribed to the subject being 
one to which the minds of all men are so 
naturally directed in one degree or another, 
and of which no man living can divest him- 
self." 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



117 



Dr. Burrowes asserts, in his well known 
work on insanity, " that there is not a tittle 
of evidence to substantiate that Christianity, 
abstractedly, ever made a person insane. Such 
an accusation is only one of the abortions of 
infidelity, or of those who lack knowledge." 

In Dr. Cheyne's interesting work on partial 
derangement of mind in supposed connection 
with religion, he says: "I never saw a case of 
mental derangement, even where it was trace- 
able to a moral cause, in which there was not 
reason to believe that bodily disease could 
have been detected before the earliest aberra- 
tion, had an opportunity of examination been 
offered. Not only does every deranged state 
of the intellectual faculties and the natural 
affections depend upon bodily disease, but de- 
rangements of the religious and moral senti- 
ments also." 

And, not to multiply authorities, we will add 
no more than a paragraph from Dr. Combe, 
who, in full concurrence with the others, 
maintains that "when fairly examined, the 
danger is seen to arise solely from the abuse 



118 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

of religion; and indeed, that the best safe- 
guard is found in a right understanding of its 
principles and submission to its precepts. For 
if the best Christian be he who, in meekness, 
humility, and sincerity, places his trust in God, 
and seeks to fulfil all his commandments, then 
he who exhausts his soul in devotion, and at 
the same time finds no leisure or no inclina- 
tion for attending to the common duties of his 
station, and who, so far from arriving at hap- 
piness or peace of mind, becomes every day 
the more estranged from them, and finds him- 
self at last involved in disease and despair, 
cannot be held as a follower of Christ, but 
must rather be held as the follower of a phan- 
tom assuming the aspect of religion. When 
insanity attacks the latter, it is obviously not 
religion that is the cause; it is only the abuse 
of certain feelings, the regulated activity of 
which is necessary to the right exercise of reli- 
gion; and against such abuse, a sense of true 
religion would have been the most powerful 
protection." 

Dr. James Johnson contends that in every 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



119 



case where the mind is said to be diseased, 
it ought to be considered as only a figure of 
rhetoric; that mind is merely an invisible 
agent, manifesting itself solely through the 
medium of the corporeal organs. When these 
last are deranged, the mental manifestations 
must also be deranged; but the mind itself 
remains unchanged, unassailable, imperishable. 
Even in insanity, it is not the mind which is 
diseased. Some portion of the brain is de- 
ranged, and then the mind can no more mani- 
fest itself sanely, than a musician can bring 
forth harmonious notes from an untuned in- 
strument. As the mind is not material, neither 
is it liable to disease or death. If we once 
admit that it is subject to the one, we must 
inevitably come to the conclusion that it is 
liable to the other! With the essence or na- 
ture of mind, we are, and ever shall be igno- 
rant. It is with the corporeal organs, through 
which it reveals its actions, that we have to 
do. If these have come into an abnormal or 
sickly condition, the effect will be often visible 
in the corresponding state of the intellect: 



120 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

and if, at such a time, they be specially con- 
versant with the subject of morals and religion, 
like a jaundiced eye, it will impart its morbid 
hue to them both. 

The error of hastily ascribing religious me- 
lancholy to the direct agency or influence of 
religion, is exposed in the account given of a 
patient in the Pennsylvania Hospital in 1842, 
by Dr. Kirkbride, Physician to the institution. 

"A young man of very moderate mental ca- 
pacity, little education, and accustomed to a 
laborious occupation, from too much confine- 
ment at his business finds his health failing, 
and gives up his employment for a few months, 
to recruit. At the end of that time, although 
not well, he is able to return to work, but 
then discovers that the changes in the times 
make it impossible for him to find anything 
to do. His means being exhausted, his body- 
weak, without his customary exercise, his mind 
gradually becomes in a morbid state, when 
some excitement from Miller's prophecy occur- 
ring in his neighbourhood, he immediately 
attempts to study the subject, and to ascertain 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



121 



its truth from close reading of the Bible — an 
investigation utterly unsuited for his capacity 
under any circumstances — and the difficulties 
he encounters at the very threshhold, lead to 
a violent attack of mania. The disease was 
attributed to 'Miller's prophecy/ or to 'reli- 
gious excitement/ but neither of these causes 
would give a proper idea of the origin of the 
case. Before being excited on that subject, 
the patient's mind was ready to be overturned 
by any abstruse or exciting matter that might 
be presented to it. Without his loss of em- 
ployment this would not have occurred, and 
without the enfeebled health which accompa- 
nied it, his attempted investigation might have 
been harmless." 

Within the sphere of our own pastoral 
labours, there have occurred four cases of this 
species of mental disorder, three of which were 
connected with known physical derangement. 
Two were effectually relieved, after a few 
months, by judicious medical treatment, though 
one of them was so aggravated that the person 
attempted suicide, and on one occasion nearly 
11 



122 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

effected it; the third still lingers, the sufferer 
being a victim of bodily disease. In the fourth 
there was a constitutional wildness on other 
subjects than that of religion; and although 
his temperament was sanguine, his mind habit- 
ually cheerful, and his hope of salvation un- 
commonly firm, yet in a moment of temptation 
he was overcome, and destroyed himself. An- 
other, whom we have known for twenty years, 
and esteemed as a man of more than ordinary 
intellect and piety, has long been subject to 
periods of religious melancholy, when he sus- 
pends his business, loses all interest in society, 
withdraws to his chamber, and remains for 
weeks and months, until the cloud of spiritual 
gloom has passed; he then returns to his secu- 
lar duties and to the church, as if he had 
never been otherwise than cheerful and happy 
in his religion, which is at all times, in sick- 
ness or health, his main topic of conversation. 
No allusion is made to the past, there are no 
inquiries, and he volunteers to give no infor- 
mation ; nor have his friends or physicians ever 
been able to explain all the phenomena of this 



ON RELIGIOUS EXRERIENCE. 



123 



case by any of the known doctrines of psycho- 
logy, physiology, or religion. That his melan- 
choly is not produced by his religion, would 
appear from the fact, that at all other times 
it is the source of his highest enjoyment. But 
as it regards the cause of these periodical 
changes in his physical condition which occa- 
sion this spiritual occultation, we do not hazard 
a conjecture. 

Not less injurious is the mistake of imputing 
to satanic agency what is dependent on bodily 
disease, as is exhibited in the case of the wife 
of the Rev. John Newton, who was unable to 
leave the house for nearly two years before she 
died, in 1790. In the beginning of October, 
she was confined to her bed, and was soon 
after deprived of all locomotive power. In this 
state, distress arose in her mind, which applied 
to the whole system of truth, and she said, 
16 If there be a Saviour," "If there be a God;" 
and in this condition continued for a fortnight, 
when there is reason to believe that her doubts 
were removed. Mr. Newton accounted for his 
wife's temporary unbelief, by referring it to 



124 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

the influence of Satan. Mrs. Newton's, how- 
ever, was a case of palsy — depending, as was 
supposed, upon a disease of the brain, by 
which her faith, the foundation of her reli- 
gion, was disturbed, while her affections were 
uninjured. It is well known that Banyan 
w r as grievously harassed at times with what he 
believed to be satanic temptations to the worst 
species of evil; and that Luther also supposed 
himself, on one occasion at least, to have been 
assaulted by the devil. But with regard to 
certain phenomena which it is common to re- 
fer to his influence, such as " unbidden and 
repulsive thoughts and feelings, and false per- 
ceptions, both voices and visions, that they 
may be produced by mere morbid physical 
agency, is unquestionable; because they are 
frequent accompaniments of pure disease, and 
yield with the disease, to medical treatment. 
Those, therefore, who are called to counsel 
persons thus afflicted, should never lose sight 
of the inquiry, whether such may not be the 
actual origin of what otherwise might be 
treated as temptations of the devil. That 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 125 

Satan may have the power of injecting his 
malicious or blasphemous suggestions imme- 
diately into the mind, we have not intended 
at all to controvert. But we are disposed to 
adopt the principle of Dr. Cheyne, that, 6 if 
an appeal to Him who conquered Satan, and 
who will aid all who come to him in faith, 
fails to relieve those who are thus afflicted, 
they may rest assured, that disease, and not 
the devil, is the enemy with which they have 
to contend, 5 and they must seek relief accord- 
ingly. 

"And if we are pressed beyond this point 
with the hypothesis, that while disease may be 
the proximate cause of these distressing and 
horrible calamities, yet Satan may be the agent 
who employs this instrumentality to harass the 
Christian, we should be inclined to fall back 
upon the ground thus quaintly maintained by 
Richard Baxter: ' If it were, as some fancy, a 
possession of the devil, it is possible that physic 
might cast him out. For if you cure the 
melancholy, (black bile,) his bed is taken away, 
and the advantage gone by which he worketh; 
11* 



126 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

cure the choler (bile) and the choleric opera- 
tions of the devil will cease: it is by means 
and humours in us, that he worketh. 5 " 

But this injurious influence on the mind 
has been ascribed, not so much to religion in 
general, as to certain forms or sectarian modes 
in which it has been expounded, and that are 
supposed to be peculiarly adapted to fill the 
soul with gloom and despondency. Hence the 
maxim, so long in vogue among the Romanists, 
" Spiritus Calvinianus, est spiritus melancholi- 
cus," (so nearly English that we need not trans- 
late it.) Even Esquirol more than hints at 
Calvinism as, in some cases, the cause of reli- 
gious melancholy; and it is well known that 
the sentiment wrapped up in this calumnious 
apothegm was a popular solution of the un- 
happy case of Cowper. Thus, a writer in the 
Encyclopedia Britannica at that time, with 
great confidence ascribed his mental malady to 
the theory of justification which he had adopt- 
ed, his natural disposition fitting him to receive 
all the horrors, without the consolations of his 
faith. Macaulay also favours the same opinion, 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



127 



by pronouncing the religious teachers of the 
poet " worthy of incineration." Nor is there 
anything, we are constrained to say, in the 
over cautious, imperfect, and disingenuous, 
however interesting Memoirs by Haley, that 
forbids this inference. And yet, it could not 
but have been known by the author, or rather 
compiler of that work, that the period of his 
life, during which he enjoyed, together with 
the unclouded sunshine of reason, the peace 
and joy of religion, was the interval from 1764 
to 1773, when he believed and openly pro- 
fessed every article of his faith, the effect of 
which was represented as afterward being so 
calamitous. It was then that his character 
was exhibited in all its attractiveness, unveiled 
by any of the mists that had come over it 
before, and which gathered again toward the 
close of his life. He w r as more cheerful and 
affectionate in his intercourse, partaking with 
lively interest in the common concerns of so- 
ciety, and happy in the enjoyment of his reli- 
gion; and when he became subsequently the 
victim of his afflictive hallucination, he could 



128 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

not avoid acknowledging that his gloomy per- 
suasion was at variance with every article of 
his creed, and he was driven to regard himself 
as an inexplicable exception to his own prin- 
ciples. We have shown already that religious 
truth of any kind had nothing to do as a 
procuring cause of Cowper's malady. It was 
as clearly a case of hypochondriasis as are 
those instances in which the patient has fan- 
cied himself a tea-pot or a sack of wool; or 
as was that of the baker of Ferrara, mentioned 
by an Italian Count, who thought himself a 
lump of butter, and durst not sit in the sun, 
nor come near the fire, for fear of being 
melted, and his thinking substance destroyed. 

We maintain then, that this unhappy condi- 
tion, which, without due examination, has been 
imputed to religion, is an effect produced by 
physical causes. That a different opinion 
should have obtained to any extent, is to be 
ascribed to misapprehension, perhaps in part, 
but we doubt not that more frequently it may 
be traced to another source, which is thus no- 
ticed by Dr. Cheyne. "When a man from 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



129 



having been worldly becomes religious, there 
is no one against whom prejudice is stronger. 
No change is less agreeable, not even a change 
from respectability of conduct to the sort of 
profligacy which defies public opinion, than 
that which leads a man, whose previous mo- 
tives were of a purely secular kind, to make 
the attainment of the kingdom of God his first 
object, by which he necessarily rises in the 
moral scale. That any one formerly on our 
own level should take, or affect to take higher 
ground, offends our self-love. It is a constant 
rebuke, by reminding us of his superiority of 
principle. Hence, it frequently happens that 
when a man really turns to God, first he is 
represented as a hypocrite, then a fool, and last 
of all, a madman. That his motives and his 
judgment will be arraigned, every neophyte 
may expect, as being matter of uniform expe- 
rience; and that madness is a consequence of 
divine teaching, is a conclusion which is as 
old as the days of Portius Festus." 

A well known minister of London, who has 
lately died, was called to visit a woman whose 



130 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

mind was disordered, and on remarking that 
it was a case which required the assistance 
of a physician rather than that of a clergy- 
man, her husband replied, "Sir, we sent to 
you because it is a religious case; her mind 
has been injured by constantly reading the 
Bible." "I have known many instances," I 
replied, " of persons being brought to their 
senses by reading the Bible ; but it is possible 
that too intense an application to that, as well 
as to any other subject, may have disordered 
your wife." " There is every proof of it," said 
he ; and was proceeding to multiply his proofs, 
till her brother interrupted him by thus ad- 
dressing me: — "Sir, I have no longer patience 
to stand by, and see you imposed on. The 
truth of the matter is this: my brother has 
forsaken his wife, and been long connected 
with an immoral woman. He had the best of 
wives in her, and one who was strongly at- 
tached to him; but she has seen his heart and 
property given to another, and, in her solitude 
and distress, went to the Bible as the only 
consolation left her. Her health and spirits 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



131 



at length sunk under her troubles; and there 
she lies distracted — not from reading her 
Bible — but from the infidelity and cruelty of 
her husband." The reader need not be told 
that the miscreant made no reply to his bro- 
ther's statement, but immediately left the room 
in the utmost confusion. Another use of this 
subject, and the last which we shall mention, 
is for 

Consolation. 

And for this grateful ministry, its scope is 
as wide as the office is benignant. As may 
be well presumed, this doctrine of physical 
influences is easily capable of being perverted. 
Some may mistake the buoyancy of animal 
spirits for the influences of the Comforter, and 
others may ascribe the motions of sins which 
are by the lan\ to the power of bodily disease. 
But it is not intended by this admission of 
the effect of physical causes upon the soul, to 
offer an apology for sin, to furnish a conve- 
nient excuse for indolence, sullenness, a cynical 
temper, or any other culpable dispositions to 
which a man may be constitutionally prone. 



132 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

All these may be natural, but very criminal 
nevertheless. The difference is wide between 
a neglect of prayer and watchfulness occasioned 
by great fatigue in the performance of other 
duties, as in the case of the disciples in the 
garden, and an omission caused by giving way 
to an inbred laziness. As a question in morals, 
the point is material whether a man's hasti- 
ness of spirit be a symptom of hepatic disease, 
or the habitual prompting of a depraved and 
neglected heart. We are not accountable to 
God for the difference in our complexion, or in 
the length of our limbs, but he justly makes 
us responsible for the envy and jealousy and 
malice of our dispositions. Nor is it enough 
to refer such perplexing cases to the tribunal 
of conscience, in view of the well known influ- 
ence of various moral, as well as physical causes, 
in misguiding its decisions. Not long ago we 
received, in a letter, the account of a young 
man of fervent piety, who was at this time 
preparing for the ministry; but in such a state, 
as to be wholly unable to pursue his studies. 
For several years he has felt himself urged 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 133 

and almost coerced, as he says, to make various 
vows to God, promising to spend so many 
hours a day in devotional exercises, and to 
keep days of fasting and prayer on various 
accounts. These vows have become so bur- 
densome, as to interfere with his duty as well 
as with his peace. He has forgotten some of 
the reasons for these vows, and now he feels 
himself solemnly bound by his vow, but knows 
not what to do to fulfil it; and some of the 
occasions on which days of fasting were vowed 
to be kept, have passed, and his vow not ful- 
filled. He is kept awake a great part of the 
night, and is incapable of study. "I endea- 
voured," says my informant, "to show him, 
in what cases vows were not binding, and flat- 
tered myself that I had relieved his mind, but 
in a few days he came back, and I went over 
the whole again; but all to little purpose. 
And by this it may be commonly known, that 
the disease is physical, when the clearest rea- 
soning and admitted conclusions produce no 
effect," 

"Some time since," says the same corres- 
12 



134 



INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 



pondent, "I was consulted respecting the case 
of a young man, who, in obedience to his 
conscience, had vowed that he would never 
taste butter — but as this entered into so many 
kinds of food, he was kept in continual per- 
plexity. This, however, seems to have been 
merely a device of Satan." 

"Not long ago there was a pious and useful 
pastor in the interior of Pennsylvania, who, 
when pursuing his theological studies, resolved 
or vowed, against so many kinds of food, be- 
cause they were gratifying to his palate, that 
he actually was suffering for want of nutritive 
food." 

To what extent such religious whims, or 
any morbid exercises of persons in such an 
unhealthy mental condition are culpable, is 
perhaps the most perplexing inquiry which 
this whole subject suggests. That man is 
answerable for his conduct so long as " exag- 
gerated irritability stops shorts of derange- 
ment," would seem to be an axiom in morals; 
and yet what shall we understand by derange- 
ment'? What is that changed condition of 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



135 



the man, or how far must it go, in order to 
release him for the time, from the claims of 
the moral law'? It has been confidently as- 
serted, that the feelings produced by nervous 
diseases are not strictly moral, nor are we 
accountable for them except as we are account- 
able for inducing that state of physical organi- 
zation in which they originate. 

And admitting this also to be true, those 
cases will nevertheless continually occur which 
it will occasion no little perplexity to decide. 
Moral qualities, such as pride, envy, jealousy, 
covetousness, &c, we know are hereditary, as 
well as those that are intellectual: "Hence we 
often find," Dr. Rush says, " certain virtues 
and vices as peculiar to families through all 
their degrees of consanguinity and duration, 
as is a peculiarity of voice, complexion, or 
shape." But however this innate or transmit- 
ted tendency to certain kinds of evil may ex- 
cite commiseration, we regard it not so much 
as an apology for having yielded to the incli- 
nation, as a cogent motive for continual vigi- 
lance against it. But notwithstanding the 



136 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

difficulties with which the subject is embar- 
rassed, there is nevertheless, much in this doc- 
trine of physical influences for the comfort of 
those whose wretched experience often makes 
it so desirable. It is a relief to find that they 
were in error concerning the nature of their 
distressing affection ; to discover that what was 
supposed to be an infusion of Satan, has been 
caused, perhaps, by a mistake in the quality 
or quantity of their food, or by changes in 
the atmosphere. They see the danger of 
making their feelings the test of their Chris- 
tian character, so long as their health is im- 
paired. Indeed it is painful to read the 
diaries of many eminent believers, and see 
how they suffered from the imaginary belief 
of the withdrawment of God's favour, mani- 
fested, as they supposed, by the variable state 
of their feelings. Who but the victim himself 
can conceive of the wretchedness of a soul that 
vents its anguish in language such as the fol- 
lowing: "I taste nothing but gall and worm- 
wood; nothing but misery and vexation. I 
was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder; he 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 137 

hath taken me by my neck and shaken me to 
pieces^ and set me up for his mark; his archers 
compass me round about; he cleaveth my reins 
asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my 
gall upon the ground, I dare not look up to 
heaven, for there I see how great a God I 
have against me; I dare not look into his word, 
for there I see all his threats as so many 
barbed arrows to strike me to the heart; I 
dare not look into the grave, because thence 
I am like to have a doleful resurrection. The 
Almighty is my enemy. The prayers of others 
can do me no good unless I have faith, and I 
find I have none at all, for that would purify 
and cleanse my heart. I do nothing else but 
sin; and God, as he is holy, must set himself 
against me, his enemy." The grand difficulty 
in many of these cases, lies in a deranged con- 
dition of the animal part. A highly respect- 
able clergyman, still living in New England, 
after having preached with much acceptance 
and success to a congregation for twenty years, 
was called to another field of labour; the 
change proving not so happy in all respects 
12* 



138 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

as he had anticipated, his health failed, and 
with it his hope. On entering the pulpit one 
Sabbath morning, he sat for a while, then 
arose, and instead of commencing as usual the 
exercises of the day, he remarked to the people 
that he had been deceived in relation to his 
personal religion, was not worthy of the office 
of a preacher, and could not any longer dis- 
charge it. A physician who was present called 
on him afterwards, and was enabled to con- 
vince him that the cause of his despondency 
was physical. In the course of two weeks of 
medical treatment it was removed, his Chris- 
tian hope revived, he resumed his labours as a 
preacher, and has continued to perform them 
ever since with comfort to himself and useful- 
ness to others. 

So far therefore, as it may be shown to the 
spiritually depressed that their gloominess is 
a symptom of disease, they may be consoled 
by the assurance, that such distress of their 
soul is perfectly consistent with its regenerate 
state and its safety. That the highest medical 
authority teaches,. that whenever a change in 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



139 



the temper or mind takes place, without a 
plain and manifest moral cause, the condition 
of the liver or digestive organs should be exa- 
mined; "for there will be found the origin of 
the mischief, three times out of four." Let 
them resort then to such remedies as the exi- 
gencies of the case demand, and wait for relief 
to be afforded through the proper channel. 

The same consideration, moreover, may often 
minister substantial consolation in the case of 
departed friends, whose exercises have appeared 
more or less ambiguous, as flesh and heart 
were failing under the power of disease. 

It is an important observation of Pearson, 
in his life of Mr. Hay, of Leeds, that good 
men may be unreasonably depressed, and bad 
men elevated, under the near prospect of death, 
from the mere operation of natural causes. 
The Saviour's declaration makes it fearfully 
certain that the judgment-day will reveal many 
disappointments of some rejected, who died in 
the confident hope of salvation; of others re- 
ceived, who left this world in darkness and 
despair, How difficult as well as delicate then, 



140 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

is the task of those who undertake to compile 
the memoirs of the pious from their diaries, 
or the records of their secret experience! 
How great their need of judgment, sound dis- 
cretion, and especially of that knowledge of 
mental disorders and morbid influences, which 
many of such writers have evidently lacked! 
Indeed we are by no means convinced that 
there is not virtually a breach of trust in 
exposing the records of Christian experience, 
perhaps meant to be secret, to the inspection 
of the public. Such relations, moreover, while 
they have not benefitted the pious, have been 
subjects of merriment to the profane. 

That the deeply interesting biography of 
Payson would have been more valuable by 
some omissions, will hardly be questioned by 
those who regard the portions to which we 
refer, as indicative rather of the state of his 
health than of the condition of his soul. And 
so of the amiable poet of Olney, who, through 
the whole period of his gloomy aberrations, 
kept a journal of his feelings, which was pub- 
lished after his decease, in spite of the earnest 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 141 

expostulations of his more judicious friends. 
It was regarded by them as a heartless viola- 
tion of the secrets of the sepulchre, as a throw- 
ing open of the closet of the anatomist to the 
gaze of the vulgar, and a yielding to the pay- 
ings of a prurient curiosity, under a pretence 
of correcting certain false notions of religion. 

How few of us would be willing to submit 
it to the most discreet friend that might sur- 
vive us, to draw our religious character from 
what we might write from day to day of our 
religious exercises, under a full conviction at 
the time we penned it, of its truth! We say 
then, in conclusion, that while this doctrine is 
never to be used as an excuse for wilful delin- 
quency in any, it may afford effective consola- 
tion to the afflicted believer when bowed down 
with infirmities of soul which he cannot over- 
come. If rightly understood it will tend not 
only to minister relief, but will make us more 
watchful against sin in all its forms, and espe- 
cially against that to which we have a consti- 
tutional bias. Are we naturally passionate and 
excitable; are we envious, proud, covetous, or 



142 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

jealous, it will cause us to pray and watch 
against these besetting sins with peculiar vigi- 
lance; while our numerous failures in this and 
every other duty, will make us feel our abso- 
lute dependence on the Spirit, both for grace 
to enjoy our religion, and strength to obey its 
precepts. Above all, it will commend to our 
hearts that great Redeemer who hath borne our 
griefs , and carried our sorrows. We shall look 
away from our desperate moral defilement, to 
that blood which cleanseth from all svn; from 
our weakness, to his strength; from our sins, 
to his perfect righteousness. It is but a little 
while, and he that shall come will come, and will 
not tarry. The day of our emancipation is fast 
approaching, when the earthly house of this 
tabernacle will be exchanged for a building of 
God, a house not made with hands, eternal in 
the heavens. The spirit shall no more be im- 
peded by the disorders of the flesh, for this 
vile body shall be fashioned like unto Chris fs 
glorious body. 

But as godly Mason says, we are not to 
expect the sunshine of joy all through this 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 143 

vale of tears. Comfortable frames and joyful 
feelings, though sweet and delightful, are not 
always most profitable. Were we. ever on the 
mount of joy, we should forget we are strangers 
and pilgrims on earth — be for building taber- 
nacles of rest in a polluted place, and cry out 
with the highly favoured disciples, it is good 
for m to he here. But they knew not what 
they said. It is the glory of a Christian to 
live by faith on Jesus; to judge of his love 
by the word of truth, more than by sense and 
feeling; — yea, under dejection and disquiet of 
soul, to hope and trust in God; to check and 
rebuke one's self for doubts and diffidence, is 
the real exercise of faith. Thy frames may 
vary with the changes of thy health and of thy 
mortal part, but the foundation of God's love 
standeth sure. Thou mayest meet with many 
things from within and without to cast down 
and disquiet thee; but thou art called to look 
to Jesus, and say, Why art thou cast down, 
O my soul? and why art thou disquieted 
within me? Hope thou in God; for I shall 
yet praise him, who is the health of my coun- 
tenance, and my God! 



144 



INFLUENCE OP HEALTH AND DISEASE 



CHAPTER III. 

TEMPTATIONS. 

This is the very painting of your fears. — Shakspeare. 

Me oft hath fancy— 
Myself creating what I saw. — Cowper,. 

The apostle James reproves those who are too 
ready to connect their enticements to evil with 
supernatural causes; who ascribe to circum- 
stances around them, an influence which pro- 
ceeds from a susceptibility within them. Let 
no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted 
of God, for God cannot he tempted of evil, 
neither tempteth he any man. But every man 
is tempted when he is drawn away hy his own 
lusts and enticed. The danger of walking 
among sparks belongs only to those who wear 
combustible garments. Nothing is more com- 
mon among the desponding and morbid than 
a proneness to this very mistake. They im- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



145 



pute their unhappy experiences to a cause 
which very often is only "the painting of their 
fears." How far the prince of tempters taay 
take occasion, from their sickly physical state, 
to lead them into errors concerning their spi- 
ritual, we presume not to say. There is, how- 
ever, the same intervention of second causes 
in their case, as in that which James speaks 
of. They are drawn away by their own bodily 
affections, and enticed into grave mistakes, 
which cause their many doubts and disquiet 
about their spiritual safety. It is a tempta- 
tion of some, in their desponding state, to 
think that they have committed 

The Sin against the Holy Ghost. 

We have known Christians, with eminent 
gifts, and piety which nobody doubted but 
themselves, who have been at times exceed- 
ingly distressed with the apprehension that 
they were guilty of this unpardonable sin. 
The perplexing question concerning its nature, 
than which, Father Austin said, "there was no 
harder in all the Scriptures," is clearly an- 
swered, as they suppose, in their own forlorn 
13 



146 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

experience. Among the schoolmen of the mid- 
dle ages there were no less than six different 
opinions about this fearful sin, all of which, 
in later times, have been rejected as erroneous. 
Calvin defined it a malicious resistance to 
divine truth, only for the sake of resistance. 
In this view Arminius concurred with Calvin, 
although opposed to him in so many others 
of more importance. Since the Reformation, a 
more common opinion has been, that it was 
the sin of the Jews when they ascribed the 
miracles of Christ to the agency of Satan. 
Dr. Chalmers and others, think it to be, not 
so much any one sin against the Holy Ghost, 
as a prolonged sinning — a resisting and griev- 
ing the heavenly Comforter until he ceases to 
strive, and withdraws ; when the forsaken heart 
is left like a field on which the clouds shed 
no more rain. The good seed of the word 
will not take root and bring forth fruit in the 
former case, any more than bare grain, ivheat, 
or some other will germinate, so long as the 
earth is poivder and dust in the absence of 
proper moisture. Conviction of sin, regenera- 



| 

f 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 147 

tion, sanctification, are no longer possible, be- 
cause the dishonoured Spirit, so often repelled, 
has let these impenitent persons alone. Sin- 
ning now has become unpardonable, as it can 
no longer be repented of, and not because it 
is, in its own nature, worse than it was before 
the Spirit's final exit. It does not come with- 
in the scope of the present volume to write a 
treatise on this grave subject; but it is intro- 
duced to the reader's notice only so far as to 
exhibit the moral effect of a physical cause. 
The gloomy prognosis in cases like these, is a 
token, not as the sufferers suppose, that they 
are unconverted, but that they are unwell. 
Mr. Kemper says, that in ninety-nine instances 
out of a hundred it is a symptom of bodily 
disease, "of which state Satan takes advantage 
to annoy and distress them. This appears," 
he adds, "for two reasons — first, that so many 
recover, become comfortable, and cease to 
charge themselves with the commission of that 
most frightful of all sins: the second is, that 
others know their characters to be better than 



148 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

they say they are, and from the unreasonable 
charges which they bring against themselves, 
which others, in their sober senses, can see 
were impossible." We once knew a young 
man, who had lived twelve years under the 
impression that he had survived his day of 
grace. He supposed that he could refer to 
the very day, and mention the act, by which 
he caused the Holy Spirit to withdraw, and 
leave him in a condition of hopeless obduracy. 
In all this time he had shown a becoming 
respect to the preaching of the gospel, but 
without any benefit of which he was conscious, 
or that was visible to others. No one sus- 
pected what was the state of his mind — not 
his pastor, nor most intimate friends ; for in 
all his conversation he had carefully concealed 
it from both. But the Spirit that he had 
exiled for ever, as he imagined, was striving 
with him still, and at length constrained him 
to reveal this oppressive secret to his pastor. 
He was then told that the very distress of 
mind which had caused him to seek that inter- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 149 

view, was at once the token and effect of the 
Holy Spirit's presence. The remark was sup- 
ported by citation from the Scriptures, and 
followed by prayer. His mind was at once 
relieved, when his joy was now great in pro- 
portion to his former deep and long-continued 
sorrow. Dr. Eidgley says, that " such as are 
guilty of this sin have no conviction in their 
conscience of any crime committed herein; but 
stop their ears against all reproof, and often 
set themselves, with the greatest hatred and 
malice against those who, with faithfulness, 
admonish them to the contrary. That they go 
out of the way of God's ordinances, and wil- 
lingly exclude themselves from the means of 
grace, which they treat with the utmost con- 
tempt, and use all means in their power that 
others may be deprived of them." A conscious- 
ness of sin then, according to Dr. Bidgley, 
a solicitude and sorrow produced by a person's 
fears of having sinned beyond pardon, are evi- 
dence that his case is not so desperate as he 
supposes. His "pain to find he cannot feel" 
13* 



150 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

is a symptom of vitality. It proves that he 
has not passed into the callous state of those 
whom the apostle Paul describes as past feel- 
ing. Some time before the Rev. Daniel Baker 
made a profession of religion, he was in great 
spiritual darkness, and on the borders of des- 
pair from the fear that he had sinned away 
his day of grace. "The unpardonable sin! — 
the unpardonable sin! — I was very much afraid 
that I had committed it ; but one day, reading 
a book called 'Russel's Seven Sermons, 5 I met 
with a sentence in the last sermon which gave 
me great comfort. It was to this effect — that 
if a man has any serious concern about the 
salvation of his soul, and has a tender thought 
in relation to his Redeemer, that was proof 
positive that he had not committed the unpar- 
donable sin. Immediately my burden was 
gone; every cloud w r as scattered, and my feel- 
ings became most delightful. It was like the 
beauty of spring after a long and dreary win- 
ter. I had new views of my Saviour; felt that 
I could rest upon him; and was enabled to 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 151 

rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory? 
Another common temptation is to the 

Adoption of a false standard of duty, 
or of ambiguous evidences of a regenerate 

STATE. 

Like the Jews who could not discern the 
signs of the times which were so visible in 
the moral firmament, and so intelligible to 
many, they asked for others that the Saviour 
would not give, and which they had no 
divine warrant to expect. Thus, how r many 
have lost their spiritual peace by the sudden 
occurrence of an " alarming passage of Scrip- 
ture," as if it were a supernatural warning. 
They forget that a bad spirit can suggest a 
text as well as the Good, and that its mean- 
ing is liable to be perverted in order that 
it may suit the morbid state of their mind 
when it is presented, just as water takes the 
colour of the soil over which it runs. It is 
mentioned in the life of Mr. Lackington, the 
celebrated bookseller, that when quite a youth, 
he was at one time locked up to prevent his 
attending a Methodist meeting in Taunton, 



152 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

Under a strong mental impression that he 
ought to go, he opened his Bible for direction, 
when his eye caught the passage: He shall 
give his angels charge concerning thee, and in 
their hand they shall hear thee up, lest thou dash 
thy foot against a stone. This, Mr. Lacking- 
ton says, "was quite enough for me; so, with- 
out a moment's hesitation, I ran up two pair 
of stairs to my own room, and out of the 
window I leaped, to the great terror of my 
poor mistress, who had charge of me." He 
was, of course, severely bruised, and confined 
to his bed fourteen days. Doubtless young 
Lackington was sincere, and was not aware 
of his adopting the very sense of the passage 
imposed on it by Satan, and which, in his ex- 
cited state, he was so predisposed to receive. 
The great moral lesson which this experience 
taught him was never forgotten. Nor was it 
bought dearly, even at the expense of so much 
bodily peril. It is a striking exemplification 
of the folly of all who are, like him, enticed 
to bite the Tempter's hook when baited by a 
text of the Bible. Persons sometimes think 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



153 



themselves to be following a light from heaven, 
when they are led by a vain imagination and 
a deceiving heart. Others, again, trust to the 
evidence of " dreams," and are at one time 
alarmed, and at another comforted, by thoughts 
from the visions of the nighty which they seem 
to believe are prompted by the same Spirit 
that addressed Eliphaz the Temanite: as if 
physiology had not made it too clear to be 
any longer doubted, that the character of our 
dreams depends very much upon our physical 
condition as affected by the amount or quality 
of our food last taken, and the state of our 
stomach. One man retiring to bed after a 
light meal, will dream of Paradise; while the 
digestive organs of another, gorged and op- 
pressed by the excesses of the evening, will 
make him dream of perdition. Baron Trenck 
relates, that being almost dead with hunger 
when confined in his dungeon, his dreams 
every night presented to him the w 7 ell filled 
and luxurious tables of Berlin, from which, as 
they were spread before him, he imagined he 
was about to relieve his hunger. Not a small 



154 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

proportion of our dreams at night are the pro- 
longed waking thoughts of the day, and come, 
according to Solomon, through the multitude of 
business. Condorcet told some one, that while 
he was engaged in abstruse and profound cal- 
culations, he was frequently obliged to leave 
them in an unfinished state in order to retire 
to rest, and that the remaining steps, and the 
conclusion of his calculation, had more than 
once presented themselves in his dreams. Mr. 
Coleridge says, that after reading an account 
of the Khan Kubla, he fell into a sleep, and 
in that situation composed an entire poem of 
not less than two hundred lines, some of which 
he afterwards committed to writing. President 
Edwards so fully believed that our dreams are 
generally fashioned from the materials of the 
thoughts and feelings that we have while 
awake, that he used to take particular notice 
of his dreams, in order to ascertain from them 
what his predominant inclinations were. Such 
being the connection between the operations 
of our mind in sleep and our sensations and 
conceptions when awake, we see the error of 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



155 



those who are so ready to ascribe their dreams 
to a supernatural influence, and receive them 
as revealing the will of God. We once knew 
a lady, in advanced age, that gave little evi- 
dence of piety, who had cherished for many 
years an unwavering assurance of her salva- 
tion, which was based upon nothing but a 
dream. That God no longer informs men of 
his mind through supernatural dreams, as he 
did in patriarchal times, we do not assert. 
We presume to fix no limit to this method of 
divine communication — to say when it ceased; 
or that old men do not dream dreams, and young 
men see visions still. The apparent connection 
that is sometimes seen between men's dreams 
and the subsequent events which they seem to 
foresee and predict, is too striking and exact 
to be accidental or fortuitous, or to be ex- 
plained "on simple and natural principles." 
A dream of this sort is mentioned in the 
memoir of a distinguished clergyman of Eng- 
land, to whom the facts were well known. A 
young lady, whose mind had become awakened 
to consider the subject of religion with special 



156 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

interest, dreamed of being in a place of wor- 
ship, where she heard a sermon, but when she 
awoke, could remember nothing but the per- 
sonal appearance of the preacher, and his text. 
The impression on her mind, however, was 
very deep, and she resolved on the next Lord's 
day morning to "find the place that she 
dreamed of, if she should go from one end of 
London to the other." About one o'clock she 
found herself in the heart of the city, where 
she dined, and afterwards set out again in 
search of this place of worship. About half- 
after-two o'clock she saw a great number of 
people going down the Old Jewry, and deter- 
mining to see where they went, she was led 
by them to the meeting-house of the Rev. Mr. 
Shower. She had no sooner entered the door, 
than, turning to a companion, she said with some 
surprise, "This is the very place I saw in my 
dream." It was not long before Mr. Shower 
entered the pulpit, when, with greater surprise, 
she observed, "This is the very man I saw in 
my dream ; and if every part of it holds true, 
he will take for his text the 7th verse of the 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 157 

116th Psalm: Return unto thy rest, O my soul, 
for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. 
When he arose to pray, every petition ex- 
pressed the desire of her heart. Then followed 
the sermon, which, to her joyous amazement, 
was on the very passage which had been im- 
pressed on her mind in the dream. The result 
was her saving conversion, and her finding 
that rest for her soul which she had so long 
sought elsewhere in vain. Not less remark- 
able was the case mentioned by Dr. Aber- 
crombie, of a most respectable clergyman in a 
country parish of Scotland, who made a collec- 
tion in his church for an object of public 
benevolence, in which he felt deeply interest- 
ed. The amount of the collection, which was 
received in ladles carried through the church, 
fell greatly short of his expectation ; and dur- 
ing the evening of the day he frequently 
alluded to the fact with expressions of much 
disappointment. In the following night he 
dreamed that three one-pound notes had been 
left in one of the ladles, having been so com- 
pressed that they had stuck in the corner 

n 



158 INFLUENCE OP HEALTH AND DISEASE 

when the ladle was emptied. He was so im- 
pressed with the vision, that at an early hour 
in the morning he went to the church, found 
the ladle that he had seen in his dream, and 
drew from one of the corners of it, the three 
one-pound notes. The same writer gives an 
account of another clergyman, who had gone 
to Edinburgh from a short distance in the 
country, and was sleeping at an inn, when he 
dreamed of seeing a fire, and one of his child- 
ren in the midst of it. He awoke with the 
impression, and instantly left town on his 
return home. "When he arrived within sight 
of his house, he found it on fire, and got there 
in time to assist in saving one of his children, 
who, in the alarm and confusion, had been 
left in a state of danger. The authority on 
which we have the story forbids us to doubt 
its authenticity. But while there is now and 
then a case like these, which no philosophy 
of the mental powers can fully explain, yet the 
wild, grotesque, incoherent, and non-natural 
character of most, prove them 

To be the children of an idle brain, 
Begot of nothing but vain fantasy. 



ON RELIGIOUS EXRERIENCE. 



159 



As the bard of Avon expounds the theory, 
under the whimsical fiction of Queen Mab sal- 
lying forth by night in her hazle-nut chariot, 
on her dream-inspiring missions — 

When in this state, she gallops night by night 
Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love ; 
On courtiers' knees, that dream on court' sies straight; 
O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees ; 
O'er ladies' lips, who straight on kisses dream: 
Sometimes she gallops o'er a courtier's nose, 
And then dreams he of smelling out a suit; 
And sometimes comes she with a tithe-pig's tail, 
Tickling a parson's nose as 'a lies asleep, 
Then dreams he of another benefice: 
Sometimes she driveth o'er a soldier's neck, 
And then he dreams of cutting foreign throats, 
Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades, 
Of healths five fathom deep ; and then anon 
Drums in his ear; at which he starts, and wakes; 
And, being thus frighted, swears a prayer or two, 
And sleeps again. 

Many Christians, of a nervous temperament, 
are tempted to make too much of 

EELIGIOUS FRAMES. 

They will imagine themselves, perhaps, to 
be in a state of favour with God, or to be 
unreconciled, according to their present im- 



160 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

pression or mental enjoyment. Mr. Brownlow 
North, in one of his public addresses in Ire- 
land, mentioned the case of a female in Bel- 
fast, who said that she knew that Christ had 
pardoned her sins, because she was so happy ; 
but if her feeling of happiness were taken 
away, she would not think her sins to have 
been forgiven. " Many imagine, unless they 
are at all times in a glow of fervour, an 
ecstatic frame of feeling, all must be wrong 
with them. But there is nothing more dan- 
gerous or deceptive than a life of mere feel- 
ing; and its most dangerous phase is a life of 
religious emotional excitement. It is in the 
last degree erroneous to consider all this glow- 
ing ecstacy of frame a necessary condition of 
healthful spiritual life. You will not be asked, 
in the last great clay, whether you had great 
enjoyment, or much enlargement of soul here. 
Speak to that vast multitude which no man 
can number, now around the throne. Ask 
them whether they came through much con- 
solati on and joy in the Lord. No! through 
much tribulation. Ask them whether they 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 161 

were saved by their warmth of love to their 
Saviour. No ! but they had washed their 
robes, and made them white in the blood of 
the Lamb." Many persons, Mr. North says, 
derive their faith from their feelings, whereas 
they ought to do the exact reverse, and let 
their feelings flow from their faith. 

The power of temptation in the form we 
now speak of, was exemplified, to a remark- 
able extent, in the case of Mrs. Hawkes, that 
devoted friend of Mr. Cecil, of London, and 
an honoured servant of Christ. Her copious 
diary is full of meditations which exhibit her 
spiritual vacillancy, and show that this was 
her infirmity. Thus, after one of her transi- 
tions from spiritual gloom to light and hope, 
she exclaims: "How variable are our frames 
and feelings! How like the shining and the 
shadow passing over the green plain! But, 
blessed be God, our salvation consisteth not in 
frames and feelings, but in being engrafted on 
the living Vine, and abiding in Christ; con- 
sisteth not even in our sensible hold on him, 
14* 



162 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

but in our simple belief of his gracious decla- 
ration that he will never leave, nor forsake, 
nor suffer us to be plucked out of his hand." 
In reference to such cases as hers, Mr. New- 
ton remarks, " that a humble, dependent frame 
of spirit, perseverance in the appointed means, 
care to avoid all occasions of sin, a sincere 
endeavour to glorify God, an eye to Jesus 
Christ as our all in all, are sure indications 
that the soul 4 is thriving,' whether sensible 
consolation abound or not. Neither high nor 
low frames will do for a standard of faith; self 
may be strong in both." Persons who are 
conscious of such spiritual oscillations, should 
learn to discriminate between their emotions or 
frames and their habitual principles of action. 
The former may be likened to the little eddies 
near the margin of a river, which, at different 
times, flow towards all points of the compass. 
The latter are the current, constantly tending 
the same way, and which makes it evident in 
what direction the great volume of water is 
running. In one of his affectionate letters to 
Mrs. Hawkes that relates to the religious 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 163 

depression which she often suffered, he com- 
pares an afflicted believer to "a man that has 
an orchard laden with fruit, who, because the 
wind has blown off the leaves, sits down and 
weeps. If one asks, 'What do you weep fori' 
c Why, my apple-leaves are gone !' 6 But, have 
you not your apples left?' ' Yes.' 'Very 
well, then, do not grieve for a few leaves, 
which, could only hinder the ripening of your 
fruit.' Pardon and promises, that cannot fail, 
lie at the root of your profession, my dear 
daughter; and fruits of faith, hope, and love, 
that no one can question, have long covered 
your branches. The east wind sometimes car- 
ries off a few leaves, though the rough wind 
is stayed. And what if every leaf were gone] 
What if not a single earthly comfort were 
left? Christ has prayed and promised that 
your fruit shall remain; and it shall be my 
joy to behold it in all eternity." Not less 
injurious to the spiritual progress of others, 
is a 

Habit of mental introspection. 

We mean, not the salutary practice of self- 



164 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

examination, which is commended alike by 
apostolic injunction and Christian experience. 
But we speak of a continual peering inward 
on their thoughts, emotions, affections, convic- 
tions of sin, and various exercises of mind, 
instead of looking away from them all to 
Christ. It is the natural proneness of a 
doubting and fearful mind, which it is often 
hard to resist. But, like Mary's visit to the 
sepulchre after the resurrection, it is a seek- 
ing of the living among the dead. Some 
persons, in their desponding moods, Mr. Spen- 
cer says, " think only of themselves and their 
sins. Nothing can magnify equal to melan- 
choly — and nothing is so monotonous. A me- 
lancholy man, left to himself and the sway of 
his melancholy, will not have a new idea once 
a month. His thoughts will move round and 
round in the same dark circle. This will do 
him no good; he ought to get out of it. De- 
pression never benefits body or soul. We are 
saved by hope." But next in danger to this 
mistake of looking to themselves for help and 
light, is their "making a test of the experience 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 165 

of others for the trial of our own." In a letter 
to Mr. Anderson, Dr. Chalmers speaks of the 
besetting anxiety that attends such a prac- 
tice, concerning which he makes the following 
excellent suggestions, as the promptings of his 
own observation and consciousness: "When 
you read books upon the subject of conver- 
sion, you see a certain process assigned, and 
in such a confident and authoritative way too, 
that you are apt to conceive that this is the 
very process, and that there can be no other. 
I compare it with my own history, and my 
own resolutions, and I am apt to be alarmed 
at the want of correspondence in a good many 
particulars. Scott's 'Force of Truth' is an 
example; Doddridge's 'Rise and Progress of 
Religion in the Soul' another; and last, though 
not least, the 'Pilgrim's Progress.' I pro- 
nounce them all to be excellent, and that 
there are many exemplifications such as they 
describe. But the process is not authoritative, 
nor is it universal. The Spirit taketh its own 
way with each individual, and you know it 
only by its fruits. I cannot say of myself that 



166 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

I ever felt a state of mind corresponding to 
John Bunyan's Slough of Despond. Indeed, 
I blame myself most sincerely, that I cannot 
excite in my heart a high enough conception 
of sin in all its malignity. I hope I have the 
conviction, but I cannot command the degree 
of emotion that I should like; and in the 
hardness of a heart, not so tenderly alive, as 
it ought to be, to the authority of my Law- 
giver, and the enormity of trampling upon 
him, I feel how far, and very far I am at this 
moment from the measure of the stature of the 
perfect man in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now, 
what am I to infer from this] — that I have 
not yet surmounted the impassable barrier 
which stands between me and the gate of life \ 
So one would suppose from John Bunyan, and 
so I would suppose myself, were it not for the 
kind assurance of my Saviour, whose every 
testimony is truth, and every tone is tender- 
ness: He that believeth in me, though he were 
dead, yet shall he live. This is my firm hold, 
and I will not let it go. I sicken at all my 
own imperfect preparations. I take one deci 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 167 

sive and immediate step, and resign my all to 
the sufficiency of my Saviour." Many Chris- 
tians, of unequal experience, are wont to 

Make an idol of comfort. 

This temptation is akin to that already men- 
tioned, which rests the believer's hope on the 
unstable basis of frames. But it implies an 
erroneous view of the Scriptures, and a mis- 
take of the only source from which solid and 
enduring comfort can ever emanate. In his 
life, written by Clarke, Dr. Harris is quoted 
as exposing, with much discrimination, this 
among other mistakes of disturbed minds that 
are seeking relief. "What an idol," he says, 
"do some make of comfort, as if it were their 
Christ V 9 It absorbs their thoughts, and they 
seem to care for nothing but this. And when 
their comfort comes, they are apt to lose it — 
some by nourishing too great scrupulosity, and 
others by contracting carelessness and hardness 
of heart. But if we miss or lose our comforts 
for other causes than our own remarkable de- 
fault and disobedience, we must acquiesce in 
the pleasure of God till the blessed day dawns. 



168 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

But why look so intently after this, when, if 
we study and understand the covenant of grace, 
and are but sincere, it will give us quietness 
under our manifold infirmities and trials, even 
though comforts flow not in upon us? But 
another error of these seekers after comfort is 
to mistake its abatement for an absolute re- 
moval. In some cases, perhaps, their fears 
may be just; and yet many are ready to mis- 
trust the least declension of it for its loss. 
They ought to understand that comfort long 
enjoyed does not make the impression it did 
at first — especially if they came out of great 
darkness; for then it is like standing in the 
open sun, after having just come out of a dun- 
geon. The change, at first, is very impressive; 
but after a long and habitual sunshine, though 
the heat and benign influences are just the 
same, yet use and time abate gradually the 
transports of the sensation." Hence the peace 
of such believers, unlike the steady flow of a 
river, is as unstable as the waters of the 
always changing ocean. Many excellent Chris- 
tians, in reading the teachings of Christ, ap- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 169 

pear to make the same mistake as did the 
sons of Zebedee; they are looking for their 
crown without the antecedent cross — for the 
victory of faith, without the good fight through 
which Paul gained it, and everybody else, who 
has gained it at all. In their desire to be 
filled with comfort, which is one of the fruits of 
sanctification, they lose sight of the process of 
trial by which God is pleased, in most cases, 
to carry on and mature this work of the Spirit. 
Such mistaken disciples expect to enjoy, in 
the present life, Mason says, that unmingled 
happiness which God has promised only for 
the future. 'O, give me comforts, or I die! 5 
saith the soul of such an one; 6 for surely, 
were I a child of God, I should not be thus 
tried, afflicted, and distressed.' 'Nay,' saith 
the Saviour, 4 ye know not what ye ask. Dost 
thou forget the exhortation which speaketh unto 
you as unto children, despise not thou the chas- 
tening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art re- 
buked of him. Did I bid thee believe on me ? 
Believe also my words; through much tribula- 
tion thou must enter my kingdom.' We often 
15 



170 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

pray, like Peter, to be excused being washed 
by our Lord; but we consider neither his love 
nor our own advantage. If I wash thee not, 
thou hast no part with me. If ye he without 
chastisement, then are ye not sons. I will purge 
away thy dross and thy tin, and purify thee in 
the furnace. Then shall thy graces shine 
brighter, thy faith grow stronger, thy love 
burn more fervent, and thy obedience be more 
cheerful. O happy to live, not so much on 
comforts, as on the God of all comforts." 
But the worst of all forms of temptation, is 
when it tends to 
Despair. 

The unhappy condition of which we have 
treated, assumes many phases, and is modified 
by circumstances almost numberless. In all 
cases it is attended with mental suffering more 
or less aggravated; but the malady sometimes 
reaches its dreadful climax in a state of des- 
pair. In most instances of this kind, the 
symptoms of bodily disease are so apparent, 
that all religious counsels may be deferred as 
superfluous, until the physical state has been 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 171 

changed by proper medical treatment. Some- 
times, however, when there are no perceptible 
indications of impaired health, the mind sinks 
into a state of hopelessness, which is promoted 
and nurtured by perverted views of truth, or 
a misapplication of its meaning. They are 
afraid to pray, perhaps, because the sacrifice of 
the wicked is abomination; or at some former 
time they may have eaten and drunk damnation 
to themselves by partaking unworthily at the 
Lord's table. Not long ago a pastor told me 
of an interesting female member of his church, 
who had been despairing of her salvation many 
years, because of her having been guilty, as 
she supposed, of this presumptuous act. Very 
often, in this sickly state, the mind is tempted 
to ponder the divine decrees, or the mystery 
of election, or try to reconcile the divine 
purposes and foreknowledge with human free 
agency. It endeavours to "pry between the 
folded leaves" of the book of life, which is for- 
bidden even to Gabriel; to comprehend that 
which is incomprehensible, and to know that 
which passeth knowledge. The forlornness and 



172 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

desperation that such diseased musings lead to, 
are indescribable. But cases of this kind so 
closely resemble those in which the mind is 
brooding over an imagined sin against the 
Holy Ghost, that the counsels addressed to the 
former are not less adapted to instruct the 
latter. Persons under the power of temptation 
in this form, not only neglect the means of 
grace, but, by a constant rumination on their 
wretchedness, only make it the more difficult 
to dislodge the delusion, and minister effectual 
relief. But "despair never made a human 
being better; it has made many a devil worse." 
Mr. Spencer says, that at one time there was 
in his congregation a woman about forty years 
of age, who was a wonder to me. She was 
one of the most intelligent and well educated 
of the people ; she had been brought up from 
her childhood in the family of a clergyman, as 
his daughter; was very attentive to the obser- 
vance of the Sabbath; and was never absent 
from her seat in the church. As the mother 
of a family she had few equals. Everybody 
respected her. But she was not a member of 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 173 

the church; and whenever I had endeavoured 
to call attention to the subject, she was so 
reserved, that I could not even conjecture what 
was her particular state of mind. I was told 
that she never spoke to any one in respect to 
her religious feelings. One day I called upon 
her, and frankly told her my embarrassment 
about her. I mentioned her uniform taci- 
turnity; my motive in aiming to overcome it; 
my supposition that some error kept her from 
religion, and my inability to conjecture what 
it was. I said to her that I had not a doubt 
there was something locked up in her own 
mind which she never whispered to me. She 
seemed very much surprised at this declaration, 
and I instantly asked her if it was not so] 
With some reluctance she confessed it was. 
And then, after no little urgency, she said she 
would tell me the whole — not on her own ac- 
count — but that her case might not discourage 
me from aiming to lead others to Christ. She 
then said that her day of grace was past; that 
she had had every possible opportunity for sal- 
vation ; that every possible motive had been a 
15* 



174 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

thousand times presented to her; that she had 
been the subject of deep convictions and 
anxiety often; she had lived through three re- 
markable revivals of religion, in which many 
of her companions had been led to Christ : and 
that she had again and again attempted to 
work out her salvation, but all in vain. "I 
know my day is gone," she said, "and I am 
given over." She spoke this in a decided 
manner, solemnly and coldly, unmoved as a 
rock. As I was silently thinking for a mo- 
ment how I could best remove her error, she 
went on to say that she had never before now 
mentioned this; that she fully believed in the 
reality of experimental religion, and assented 
to everything she had ever heard me preach, 
except when once or twice I had spoken of 
religious despair. But inasmuch as her day of 
grace was past, she did not wish to have her 
mind troubled on the subject of religion at all, 
and asked me to say nothing more about it. 
I inquired how long she had been in this state 
of mind] She told me she had known for 
eighteen years that there was no salvation for 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



175 



her. I inquired if she ever prayed] She said 
she had not prayed for eighteen years. I asked 
if she did not feel unhappy to be in such a 
state] She said she seldom thought of it, as 
it would do no good; and she never intended 
to think of it again. I called to see her time 
after time about once a week for six weeks; 
examined all her reasons for thinking that her 
day of grace had gone by,, except one, and 
convinced her that they were false. Evidently 
she had become intellectually interested ; there 
was but one point left. She had never, at any 
preceding interview, expressed a wish to see 
me, or asked me to call again. I now called 
her attention summarily to the ground we had 
gone over, and how she had found all her 
refuges of lies swept away, save one, as she her- 
self had acknowledged; and if that were gone, 
she would think her salvation possible. I then 
asked her if she wished to see me again] She 
replied that her opinion was unchanged, but 
that she would like to hear what I had to say 
about the remaining point, which, as she truly 
said, I had avoided so often. I called the next 



176 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

day, and took up the one point left — this last 
item which doomed her to despair. As I exa- 
mined it, reasoning with her, and asking if she 
thought me right from step to step as I went 
on, the intensity of her thoughts became pain- 
ful to me. She gazed upon me with unutter- 
able astonishment. Her former cold and stone- 
like appearance was gone; her bosom heaved 
with emotion; and her whole frame seemed 
agitated with a new kind of life. To see the 
dreadful fixedness of despair melting away from 
her countenance, and the dawnings of inceptive 
hope taking its place, was a new and strange 
thing to me. It looked like putting life into 
a corpse. As my explanation and argument 
drew towards the close, she turned pale as 
death. She almost ceased to breathe; and 
when I had finished, and in answer to my 
question, she confessed that she had no reason 
to believe that her day of grace was past, and 
instantly she looked as if she had waked up in 
a new world. The tears gushed from her eyes 
in a torrent, she clasped her hands, sprung 
from her seat, and walked back and forth 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 177 

across the room, exclaiming, "I can be saved! — 
I can be saved! — I can be saved!" She was 
so entirely overcome that I thought she would 
faint, or perhaps her reason give way. I was 
afraid to leave her, and remained, saying no- 
thing, till she became more composed, when, 
with a silent bow, I withdrew. The next Sab- 
bath morning she was at the meeting for 
inquirers, and appeared like other awakened 
sinners, with nothing remarkable about her 
except her manifest determination to seek the 
Lord with all her heart. In about three weeks 
she became one of the happiest creatures in 
hope, I ever saw. She afterwards united with 
the church, and yet lives a happy and decided 
believer. 



178 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 



CHAPTEE IV. 

COUNSELS. 

'Tis hard, in such a strife of rules, to choose 
The best. 

Armstrong. 

Haying examined the nature of physical 
causes, their influence upon religious experi- 
ence, and the uses of knowledge, we come now 
to the most important department of our sub- 
ject, viz. 

The counsels which such cases of suffer- 
ing REQUIRE. 

And here we should repeat the remark, that 
as we are not writing for medical men, neither 
do we affect the medical knowledge which is 
required to do it justice in all its bearings. 
The most which has been proposed and at- 
tempted, is to offer the results of some experi- 
ence and observation in prosecuting the minis- 
try, rather than the fruits of scientific research. 
Without much of the latter, it has appeared 
to the writer, that there is ample scope for 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 179 

some profitable suggestions, by which the un- 
happy condition of many may be reached and 
relieved. 

The more conversant we become with the 
varied cases of spiritual disquietude, occurrent 
in our churches, the more occasion we see for 
all the aid which may be furnished by the 
counsels and experience of others. That this 
should have been made no more frequently the 
subject of discussion by the pen or the pulpit, 
is to be ascribed, not to its intrinsic barren- 
ness, nor its want of importance, as is evident 
from the prominency given it in the older 
English writers, but the demand for treatises 
on subjects like that of our present discussion 
is small, and for the most part restricted to 
those whose cases are portrayed, and very often 
to a smaller number even than they. Some- 
times there is such an utter prostration of all 
energy, intellectual and moral, in the afflicted 
themselves, that it is extremely difficult to 
arrest their attention even by instructions, 
which, if heeded, would relieve their spirits, 
and restore them to cheerfulness. 

1 



180 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

" In perusing the memoirs of those who have 
devoted themselves to God, 55 Dr. Cheyne says, 
" nothing has appeared to us more remarkable 
than their ignorance of, or inattention to, many 
of those things which affect their spiritual 
enjoyment; and especially that physical causes 
should be so continually overlooked by those 
who must be fully aware of the influence which 
the body exercises over the mind, and the mind 
over the body, in all men, but particularly in 
Christians. 55 They are habitually desponding 
and unhappy; not appearing to know how 
much the pleasurable emotions of the soul are 
dependent on the state of the health. 

Non est vivere, sed valere, vita. 
Existence is not life, but to be well. 

To those, then, who are perplexed about 
their spiritual state, and are often fearful and 
sad, we would say, 

Endeavour, so far as possible, to ascer- 
tain THE TRUE CAUSE OF YOUR DOUBTS AND 
SPIRITUAL TROUBLES. 

This is Baxter's prescription. "If you 
should mistake in the cause, 55 he says, "it 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 181 

would much frustrate the most excellent means 
for cure. The very same doubts and com- 
plaints may come from several causes in several 
persons, and therefore admit not of the same 
way of cure. Sometimes the cause begins in 
the body, and thence proceedeth to the mind ; 
sometimes it begins in the mind, and thence 
distempereth the body. Again, it proceedeth 
from wordly crosses, or scruples upon points 
of religious doctrine, decays of inward grace, 
or, as it was with David, from the deep wounds 
of some scandalous sin. Which of these is 
your -own case, you must be careful to find 
out, and apply the means for cure accordingly. 
And if, upon close and careful examination, 
it prove like Achan's fraud, to be some latent 
sin, then relief can only come (as it infallibly 
will come,) by putting it away. If the cause 
be found in the state of your health, then 
acquit your soul from all that part of your 
disquietness which proceeds from this source; 
remembering in all your self-examinations, 
self-judgings, and reflections on your heart, 
that it is not directly to be charged with those 
16 



182 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

sorrows that come from your spleen, save only 
remotely, as all other diseases are the fruits of 
sin, as a lethargic dullness is the deserved 
fruit of sin; but he that should charge it im- 
mediately on his soul, would wrong himself, 
and he that would attempt the cure, must do 
it on the body." 

It is admitted that such counsel as this is 
attended with more or less danger; that it 
may encourage presumption in some, and thus 
lead them to heal the hurt of their spirit too 
slightly and hastily, by resolving it into a 
cause over which they have no control, and 
for which they are not accountable. How 
many pains which afflict the soul, especially in 
later life, are only retributory. They are the 
bitter things in which the sufferer is made to 
possess the iniquities of his youth; "the physi- 
cal results of early crime in the disease and 
infirmity of the body; the mental results, in j 
the weakness, disorder, and unsettledness of j 
the intellect; and the moral results, in the 
hardness, impenitency, and unbelief of the | 
soul." And although the petulance, impa- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



183 



tience, repining, and restive spirit which they 
often produce, are the effect of a physical cause, 
yet they are not blameless, and are no more 
to be ascribed to the mere sovereignty or pro- 
vidence of God, than is the delirium tremens 
of the drunkard, or the death of the suicide. 
It is hoped that the subject has been suffi- 
ciently guarded against this perversion, by 
what has been said in the preceding chapter. 
Unhappily, however, as has also been inti- 
mated before, many of those who need such 
instructions, are too dejected and inert to be 
aroused to make any serious and persevering 
inquiry after the source of their despondency. 
"To reason with a man against the views 
which arise from melancholy," Dr. Alexander 
says, "is commonly as inefficacious as reasoning 
against bodily pain. I have long made this a 
i criterion, to ascertain whether the dejection 
i experienced was owing to a physical cause; for 
in that case, argument, though demonstrative, 
i had no effect." Very many are predisposed to 
c take it for granted that their gloom proceeds 
- from a culpable cause, whatever it may be; 



184 INFLUENCE OE HEALTH AND DISEASE 

that the more they should investigate the pain- 
ful subject, the more they would discover to 
convince them that they were deceiving them- 
selves, and that they had never been spiritually 
changed. But let no professor of religion in 
his senses ever be tempted to dispose of his 
own case in this precipitate and summary way. 
To give indulgence to such a lethargic ease, 
while in doubt about his salvation, is evidence 
of a sort of hallucination, which, instead of 
impairing his responsibility, greatly increases 
both his danger and his guilt. Let the in- 
quiry into his own personal state, then, be 
pursued diligently, until he come to a satisfac- 
tory conclusion; let him persevere under a per- 
suasion of the ineffable importance of the duty, 
as involving all that is desirable or fearful in 
the disclosures of eternity. His despondency 
may be produced by false views of religion, or 
these erroneous views may generate despond- 
ency. Nor is it in every case easy to deter- 
mine which is cause and which is effect; the 
manner in which mind and body reciprocally 
act upon each other being often so inscrutable 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 185 

as to baffle the attempt to distinguish between 
physical and mental causes. " Where des- 
pondency puts on a religious form, its real 
nature may be ascertained by inquiring into 
the actual character and circumstances of the 
sufferer. Where there is palpable illusion, 
there is disease. False impressions may pro- 
ceed from ignorance and misapprehension, and 
such impressions will yield to moral treatment. 
But if the notions are not merely inaccurate, 
but illusive; if the mind is found to have 
shaped out for itself the ideal object of its 
desponding apprehension, there can be no 
ground for hesitation in pronouncing the de- 
pression to be bodily distemper. There are 
morbid states of mind which do not rise to 
that height of nervous disorder which produces 
hallucination, but which still indicate an un- 
healthy state of body. There is such a thing 
as the religious vapours, for which the Phar- 
macopoeia prescribes suitable remedies. But 
no one who knows what melancholy is, will 
confound that terrible visitation with any self- 
16* 



186 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

inflicted or fantastic complaints." Our second 
counsel to those who are thus afflicted, is to 

AY AIL THEMSELVES OF JUDICIOUS MEDICAL 
ADYICE. 

We refer in this direction more particularly 
to those whose state of doubting and darkness 
has been long continued. As in the case of 
Dr. Kush, the cause may exist in a morbid 
condition of the body, without being even sus- 
pected by themselves. To those whose trouble 
proceeds from this source, Baxter says again, 
"expect not that rational or spiritual remedies 
should suffice for your cure, any more than 
that a good sermon or comfortable words should 
cure the falling sickness, or palsy, or a broken 
head; for your melancholy fears are as really 
a bodily disease as the other, only because 
these work on the spirits and fantasy, on which 
words of advice do also work to a certain ex- 
tent ; therefore such words, and Scripture and 
reason may somewhat resist it, and may pal- 
liate and allay some of the effects at the pre- 
sent, but as soon as time hath worn off the 
force and effects of these reasons, the distemper 
presently returns." 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



187 



As the cause therefore is in the animal part, 
it must be reached, if at all, by remedies which 
it comes more within the province of the 
medical than the spiritual counsellor to pre- 
scribe. The physician, it is true, cannot cure 
the moral cause that preys upon the mind, and, 
through that medium, injures the body, but he 
can, in a great measure, prevent the reaction of 
the body on the mind, by which reaction the 
moral affliction is rendered infinitely more diffi- 
cult to bear. But let it not be forgotten that 
not every physician, how skilful soever, and 
learned, and successful in his general practice, 
is qualified to instruct the description of pa- 
tients whom these remarks contemplate. No 
person has such opportunities of studying the 
mutual and reciprocating relationship between 
the mind and body, and yet it is one on which 
many of the faculty betray the most culpable 
ignorance. They want the " ability of search- 
ing out and understanding the moral causes 
of disease; they cannot read the book of the 
heart; and yet it is in this book that are in- 
scribed, day by day, and hour by hour, all the 



188 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

griefs, and all the miseries, and all the vani- 
ties, and all the fears, and all the joys, and all 
the hopes of man, and in which will be found 
the most active and incessant principle of that 
frightful series of organic changes which con- 
stitute pathology. Many a disease is the contre 
coup (counter blow,) so to speak, of a strong 
moral emotion. The mischief may not be ap- 
parent at the time, but its germ will be, never- 
theless, inevitably laid." Such sentiments from 
an eminent lecturer in one of the best medical 
schools of Europe, show the importance of spe- 
cial care and discretion in the choice of a 
physician for a malady which, by their own 
confession, so few understand, or know how to 
treat. Mr. Rogers advises all the afflicted of 
this sort to apply to doctors not only learned 
in the profession of physic, but who have 
themselves felt the disease; for it is impossible 
fully to understand the nature of it any other 
way than by experience: and that person, he 
says, is highly to be valued, whose endeavours 
God will bless to the removal of a complaint 
so obstinate and violent. How much evil has 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



189 



resulted from the injudicious counsel of incom- 
petent advisers who can compute'? 

Infeliciter aegrotat, ubi plus est periculi, a medicamento quam a 
morbo. 

It is a sad condition for the sick, when they are put in greater 
peril by their treatment, than by their disease. 

Such, however, has been the change of late 
years in the character of diseases, and espe- 
cially so great has been the increase of those 
by which the mind and spiritual affections are 
disturbed, that cases of this sort are better 
understood, and the number of competent ad- 
visers among the faculty is much greater than 
it was formerly. It is an interesting fact, 
which is not generally known, that a large 
proportion of our more serious ailments fall 
within the category to which we now refer. 

Near the close of the seventeenth century, 
Sydenham estimated fevers to constitute, at 
that time, two-thirds of the diseases of man- 
kind. About seventy years afterwards, Dr. 
Cheyne made nervous disorders about one- 
third of the complaints of the higher class in 
England. At the beginning of the nineteenth 



190 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

century, Trotter supposed them to constitute 
full two-thirds of all those which afflicted civi- 
lized society. And a later writer still, expresses 
the opinion that even Trotter's estimate falls 
below the truth. Of the four hundred thou- 
sand persons who died in England during 
1856, one out of every eight died of diseases 
of the brain and nerves; and one out of every 
sixteen died of diseases of the digestive organs. 
"We do not pretend to decide as to the com- 
parative accuracy of these computations. It is 
enough to say, that the lowest is sufficiently 
great to appal, and also to show, that no de- 
partment of the healing art claims more earn- 
estly the attention of physicians than this. If 
the connection between the mind and body be 
so intimate as has been shown, the reasonable- 
ness of this resort for medical advice would 
be obvious, even if its practical value had not 
been tested by common experience. How often 
have we known a morbid condition of the mind 
or spirits to be as speedily and as effectually 
removed by the operation of a drug as a pain 
in the head. That peevishness, impatience, 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



191 



and irritability which make one intolerable to 
himself as well as to others, we see daily re- 
lieved by the same simple agency, as by the 
power of magic; and hence "our domestic 
happiness often depends on the state of the 
biliary and digestive organs ; and the little dis- 
turbances of conjugal life may sometimes be 
more efficaciously cured by the physician than 
by the moralist; for a sermon or homily mis- 
applied will never act so directly as a sharp 
medicine." 

A physician in the city of Philadelphia was 
recently invited to visit a lady enjoying appa- 
rent health, living in affluence, and surrounded 
with everything which wealth and elevated 
condition, and affectionate friends could confer 
to render her happy; yet in the midst of it 
all she felt indescribably wretched, and sent 
for her medical adviser to explain the cause. 
It was a case of plethoric tendency, which 
called for depletion. A moderate bleeding 
afforded relief, and in a very few days she 
was restored to her former cheerfulness. 

The Rev. M. B. Hope, M.D., in a well writ- 



192 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

ten Essay on Religious Melancholy, mentions 
the case of a young lady, who had been long and 
intimately known to the writer, who was "of 
a temperament highly nervous and sanguine, 
and embarked very young, with all her ardour, 
in the gay pleasures of fashionable life. A 
single season convinced her fully of their emp- 
tiness and folly. She was soon after brought 
under the influence of pungent preaching, and 
convinced of sin. The struggle was sharp and 
long; but the result was, that she gave herself, 
with all her heart, to a course of rigid reli- 
gious duties. Above all, she seemed to live 
in an atmosphere of prayer. Her faith in the 
truth and promises of God, was without the 
shadow of a cloud. And yet she had not the 
pure enjoyment which she supposed to be the 
necessary fruit of real piety. She did not, 
therefore, look upon herself as a child of God; 
and her consequent anxiety wore upon her 
spirit, and secretly undermined her health. At 
length, one day, as she rose from prayer, the 
thought struck her like a thunderbolt, 'what 
if there is no God after all.' She repelled the 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 193 

thought with horror, and went her way. But 
the shock had struck from her hand ' the 
shield of faith, 9 and all her efforts were unable 
to grasp it again. From henceforth she found 
herself exposed to a constant shower of darts, 
fiery and poisoned, and she could not resist 
them. They stuck fast in her vitals, and drank 
up her spirits. The poison thus injected into 
the heart of her religious experience soon 
spread, and blighted the whole. She never 
knew a moment's peace, when her thoughts 
were upon her once favourite, and still engross- 
ing subject. She called herself an infidel, and 
applied to herself the dreadful threatenings 
and doom of the unbeliever. And yet it was 
evident she was not, in any sense, an unbe- 
liever. She was one of the most devout and 
consistent persons we ever knew. She was 
conscientious even to scrupulosity. She was 
a most devoted and faithful Sunday-school 
teacher, and God blessed her labours to the 
conversion of nearly all her scholars. She re- 
joiced to hear of persons becoming Christians, 
and would often say, with despair in her tones, 
17 



194 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

how she envied them. When any of her ac- 
quaintances died without giving good evidence 
of piety she became excited, and as she ex- 
pressed it, was ready to scream aloud. She 
gave every possible evidence that she had not, 
in reality, a shadow of a doubt about the truth 
of revelation. And yet no one ever dreamed 
that her difficulties were connected with dis- 
ease of any sort; for her mind was remarkably 
clear, and active. The advice of pious friends 
and ministers, therefore, based upon the suppo- 
sition that her case was one of spiritual dark- 
ness, or satanic temptation, was to persevere 
in prayer — to struggle on more earnestly, and 
God would give her light after he had tried 
her faith and patience and love. But the more 
she prayed and struggled the worse she grew. 
She would come from her closet, exhausted 
with the fearful conflict, and looking ready to 
sink into utter despair. The Sabbath was 
always the worst day of the week; and the 
labour and exhaustion of teaching aggravated 
her symptoms. 

The only treatment which was successful, 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



195 



in this case, would by many have been re- 
jected with horror. She was advised to give 
up the struggle which she had maintained so 
unequally, and which would only have resulted 
in disastrous consequences- — to think as little 
as possible on the subject — to spend less time 
in devotional exercises, and allow her mind to 
gather its scattered strength by relaxation. 
The form of prayer advised was short and 
audible, and such as took for granted what she 
had been struggling to convince herself of. 
Incessant pains were taken to present the cha- 
racter of God in a simple, affectionate, parental 
light, when anything led to the subject. The 
simplicity of faith, and the certainty of salva- 
tion, were occasionally flashed across her mind, 
when it was in a suitable frame. The only 
two evidences of piety which her state of mind 
rendered available, were kept prominent as the 
basis of new feelings and hopes, viz. her love 
to the people of God, and the pain she felt 
in the absence of divine favour, and the long- 
ing for its return. These were untouched by 
the dismal monster that had preyed upon her 
hopes. 



196 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

By a judicious perseverance in a course 
like this, accompanied with well directed hy- 
gienic measures, suitable recreation, exercise, 
and diet, for improving her general health, and 
especially the tone of her nervous system, the 
mental energies began to react, and new views 
of truth and new hopes spring up in her 
mind." 

Another case, furnished by the same, and 
adduced for the sake of showing the efficacy 
of judicious medical treatment, is that of "a 
lady, whose state of mind had baffled every 
attempt made by her judicious husband, to 
bring her relief. She was a woman of great 
refinement and strength of mind, eminently 
pious, and devoted to her interesting young 
family, whose education she conducted herself. 
While conferring every accomplishment upon 
her children, she was mainly anxious for their 
spiritual welfare. When we saw her, she was 
intensely excited, and had slept little for seve- 
ral nights. She said she had lost all interest 
in the instruction of her children, and had 
become utterly regardless of their personal ap- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 197 

pearance and her own. Her whole thoughts 
and feelings were engrossed about their salva- 
tion, her anxiety for which had become in- 
supportably agonizing. When instructing, or 
dressing, or leading them out for their accus- 
tomed exercise, she was incessantly distracted 
with the thought, what good will all this do, 
while they are still impenitent! Though her 
flushed face and flashing restless eye, indicated 
strong physical excitement, yet her mind was 
so clear on every subject, and all her views so 
rational, that we attributed the whole difficulty 
to excessive and protracted anxiety, for an ob- 
ject of peculiar interest to a pious mother — 
the salvation of her children. We made re- 
peated attempts to reason with her on the error 
and evils of her present state of mind. She 
admitted fully the justice of our reasoning, 
and concurred in the truth of all our positions, 
but we found that this was of no avail. Her 
excitement continued, and with it her distress, 
and all her difficulties. It appeared like a 
case of pure religious excitement, and was so 
looked upon by all her family. They did not 
17* 



198 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

deem her deranged, but it was evident she soon 
would be, unless relieved. Finding reasoning 
of no avail, and the excitement still increasing, 
we became convinced, on minute examination, 
that the whole difficulty originated, not in reli- 
gious views or feelings at all, but in a morbid 
increase of arterial action, arising from some 
physical cause. One-twelfth of a grain of tartar 
emetic, five or six times a day, gave perfect 
relief, and restored both her views and feelings 
to the healthy standard." 

Dryden, whose mind, notwithstanding its 
capacity for elevated and brilliant conceptions, 
was sometimes turbid and dull, well knew the 
utility of medical expedients as auxiliary to 
thought. "When I have a grand design be- 
fore me," says he, "I ever take physic and let 
blood; for when you would have pure swift- 
ness of thought and fiery flights of fancy, you 
must have a care of the pensive part, and for 
this, get help from the apothecary." Descartes, 
the philosopher, went farther still, and asserted 
that if any means can be found to render men 
wiser and more ingenious than they have been 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



199 



hitherto, such a method must be sought from 
the assistance of medicine : and Plutarch, speak- 
ing of the reaction of the mind upon the body 
as the cause of those injuries which it requires 
medicine to repair, very playfully observes, that 
" should the body sue the mind before a court 
of judicature for damages, it would be found 
that the mind had proved to be a ruinous 
tenant to its landlord." 

None, we trust, will infer from what has 
thus been said of medical assistance, that we 
approve of that habitual tampering with drugs, 
or the injudicious perusal of medical books, 
which is so common with the nervous valetu- 
dinarian, by which he only makes his malady 
the worse. 

Exuperat magis, segrescitque medendo. 

The disease is aggravated by the means used to cure it. 

Rousseau admitted that this was a powerful 
cause of hypochondria in respect to himself. 
"Having read," he says, "a little on physio- 
logy, I set about studying anatomy; and pass- 
ing in review the number and varied actions 



200 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

of the parts which compose my frame, I ex- 
pected twenty times a day to feel them going 
wrong. Far from being astonished at finding 
myself dying, my wonder was that I could live 
at all. I did not read the description of any 
disease which I did not imagine myself to be 
affected with; and I am sure that if I had not 
been ill, I must have become so from this fatal 
study. Finding in every complaint the symp- 
toms of my own, I believed I had got them 
all, and thereby added another still more into- 
lerable, the fantasy of curing myself." All 
this private empiricism we would discourage, 
by directing the sufferer away from these ex- 
periments upon himself, to the well-taught 
physician, that more competent counsellor, who 
has been designated by Providence. Another 
important auxiliary to the desponding Chris- 
tian is 

Suitable society, 
or habitual intercourse with others, and espe- 
cially the devout, who possess a happier tem- 
perament. 

Whatever cheerful and serene 

Supports the mind, supports the body too. 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



201 



The influence of sympathy, its operation for 
both evil and good, is familiarly known. "We 
are all," says Locke, " a kind of chameleon, 
who take a moral tinge from the objects which 
surround us." The manifestation of fear or of 
confidence and self-possession in a time of dan- 
ger, inspires a corresponding emotion in those 
who behold it. The "quid times'? Csesarem 
vehis," or Caesar's appeal to the affrighted 
shipmaster, not to be afraid while he was 
aboard, will occur as a striking illustration; 
and how we all assimilate in character, as 
well as in manners, to those with whom 
we associate, is a fact of daily observation. 
Hence the salutary effect of a cheerful, san- 
guine Christian, upon those who are prone 
to melancholy. As iron sharpeneth iron, so a 
man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend. 
His society is exhilarating, like the wine pre- 
scribed by Solomon to those that be of heavy 
hearts. An interview with those of their own 
morbid tendencies may be advantageous some- 
times, by correcting the usual mistake of such 
believers, that their case is peculiar, or has cer- 



202 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

tain unfavourable characteristics, by which it is 
placed without the reach of the ordinary means 
of relief. A comparison of exercises and senti- 
ments is often productive of good, in showing 
that their condition is not so singular as they 
had imagined. It is very hard indeed to per- 
suade a person under great pain and anguish, 
and the sense of the wrath of God, and a fear 
of hell, that ever any has heretofore been so 
perplexed as he. Such, generally, think them- 
selves worse than Cain, or Judas, or Simon 
Magus, and that their sins have greater ag- 
gravation. Mr. Rogers says, "I have known 
several that were long afflicted with trouble of 
mind, and melancholy — as Mr. Rosewell and 
Mr. Porter — both ministers, the latter whereof 
was six years oppressed with this distemper ; 
yet afterwards both rejoiced in the light of 
God's countenance. I myself w T as near two 
years in great pain of body, and greater pain 
of soul, and without any prospect of peace or 
help; and yet God hath revived me in his 
sovereign grace and mercy; and there have 
been several heretofore sorely perplexed with 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 203 

great inward and outward trouble, whom God 
after that wonderfully refreshed. Mr. Robert 
Bruce, some time ago minister at Edinburgh, 
was twenty years in terrors of conscience, and 
yet delivered afterwards." From the prevail- 
ing lack of sympathy with which such sufferers 
meet, many prefer to hide their sorrows in 
their own bosom, to the risk of opening their 
heart to those who could poorly appreciate an 
experience so foreign to their own. Thus the 
late Captain Benjamin "Wickes, of Philadel- 
phia, concealed his long and oppressive melan- 
choly for nearly twenty years, until it was 
discovered by that devoted servant of Christ, 
Mr. Joseph Eastburn, whose affectionate con- 
versation and judicious counsels were the means 
of affording immediate relief. 

How far the distressing symptoms of Cow- 
per's malady were mitigated by the delightful 
society of the Unwins, is easily inferred from 
his memoirs ; nor are any of us so imperturb- 
able in our spiritual temperament, as not to 
be more or less lifted up or depressed by the 
joy or sadness of those Christian friends with 



204 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

whom we mingle. And hence one of four car- 
dinal rules which the eminent casuist already 
quoted, has given to melancholy Christians, is 
to "keep company with the more cheerful 
sort of the godly; converse with men of the 
strongest faith, that have much of the heavenly 
mirth of believers, which faith doth fetch from 
the blood of Christ and from the promises of 
his word, and who can speak experimentally 
of the joy of the Holy Ghost, and these will 
be a great help to the reviving of your spirit 
and changing your melancholy habit, so far as 
without a physician it may be expected." On 
the other hand, decline, so far as practicable, 
the society of the gloomy and disconsolate. 
Their sorrowful spirit, like an evil distemper, 
is contagious, and your influence upon each 
other will be reciprocally prejudicial. 

Oderunt hilarem tristes, tristemque jocosi. 

The grave dislike the cheerful, and the merry hate the grave. 

Some physiologists contend that laughter, 
as one of the greatest aids to digestion, is 
highly conducive to health, and therefore. Hufe- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



205 



land, physician to the king of Prussia, com- 
mends the wisdom of the ancients, who main- 
tained a jester, that was always present at 
their meals, "whose quips and cranks would 
keep the table in a roar." Dr. Everard Mayn- 
waring, in his "Tutela Sanitatis," published in 
1663, tells his melancholy patients to walk in 
the green fields, orchards, parks, and gardens — 
to avoid solitariness, and keep merry company. 
In the chapter entitled "Hygiastic Precautions 
and Rules appropriate to the various Passions 
of Mind," he says: "Mirth subtiliates, purifies, 
and cheers the spirits; puts them upon activity 
that before were torpid, dull, and heavy, and 
excites them to operation and duty in the 
several faculties; volatizeth, rarifies, and atte- 
nuates gross, feculent, obstructing humours; 
preserves youth, vigour, and beauty; makes 
the body plump and fat, by expanding the 
spirits into the external parts, and conveying 
nutriment, whose wholesome effects are much 
the same with those of exercise, and may well 
supply when that is wanting. 

Dam fata sinunt vivite laeti. — Seneca. 

While the fates permit, let your life be cheerful." 

18 



206 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

Such counsel, quoted from the old Boman 
philosopher, on whom Father Jerome bestows 
such extravagant praise, is much better than 
some of his instructions for carrying it into 
effect. But how much wiser the teaching of 
Paul, who would provide against a large pro- 
portion of our disquietudes in life, by a 
removal of the cause. "We are prone to look 
no further than to our own case, as if it 
were peculiar, and nobody ever suffered in 
the same way, or to the same extent, with 
ourselves. But this, the apostle teaches, is 
as impolitic as it is selfish. Look not every 
man on his own things, but every man also on 
the things of others. Do not dwell in perpe- 
tual meditation on the ills that afflict your- 
selves, but turn your thoughts sometimes to 
the incomparably greater trials of others. Your 
mind may be depressed and sad under the 
influence of some imagined or real malady, but 
is it not because you forget how much better 
is your condition than that of many whose 
" days are blackness, whose every breath is in 
suffering, and who feed on tears?" You may 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 207 

not possess your wonted ease of locomotion, 
and perhaps spend many long days and nights 
in great pain. But what is all that you en- 
dure, a hundred-fold increased, compared with 
the bitter cup of such a poor suffering cripple 
as is mentioned by Dr. Hall, who, he says, is 
still living (1859) at the age of forty-five, with 
every joint in his body as immovable as a 
solid bone, except those of two toes and two 
fingers. His jaws have been set and motion- 
less for thirty years, the only aperture through 
which he receives food being that made by 
the falling out of his front teeth. In the 
Journal of Health for 1859, is a sprightly let- 
ter to the editor from a correspondent in Vir- 
ginia, who describes himself as rigid and help- 
less as a mass of stone; his eyes and tongue 
being the only members over which he has 
the least control. "My digestive organs," he 
writes, "have lost their activity, and I have a 
distressing asthmatic affection. The inability 
i to open my jaws forces me to subsist upon 
such food as I can compress through a cavity 
made by the loss of two of my teeth." But 



208 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

the aspect of his letter is bright and genial, 
indicating a livelier sense of the Divine benefi- 
cence than thousands show, who have health 
and everything around them to make life 
happy. Examples of such utter physical dis- 
ability in the organs of the body, and derange- 
ment of their functions, are comparatively rare. 
But what a rebuke do they minister to the 
thousands of murmurers who habitually under- 
value the blessings of Providence, because 
their abundance and commonness make them 
so familiar. One of the happiest persons we 
ever heard of, was a lady who was so pros- 
trated by palsy that she had no power over 
a limb or muscle from her neck downwards, 
and could move no part of her whole person 
but her head. Dr. Paley says, that one great 
cause of our insensibility to the goodness of 
the Creator, is the very extensiveness of his 
bounty. We prize but little what we share 
only in common with the rest, or with the 
generality of our species. "When we hear of 
blessings, we think forthwith of successes, of 
prosperous fortunes, of honours, riches, prefer- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



209 



ments — L e. of those advantages and superiori- 
ties over others which we happen either to 
possess or to be in pursuit of, or to covet. 
The common benefits of our nature entirely 
escape us. Yet these are the great things. 
These constitute what most properly ought to 
be accounted blessings of Providence; what 
alone, if we might so speak, are worthy of its 
care. Nightly rest and daily bread, the ordi- 
nary use of our limbs, and senses, and under- 
standings, are gifts which admit of no com- 
parison with any other. Yet, because almost 
every man we meet with possesses these, we 
leave them out of our enumeration; they 
raise no sentiment, they move no gratitude. 
Now, herein is our judgment perverted by our 
selfishness. A blessing ought, in truth, to be 
the more satisfactory — the bounty at least of 
the donor is rendered more conspicuous by its 
very diffusion, its commonness, its cheapness; 
by its falling to the lot, and forming the hap- 
piness of the great bulk and body of our spe- 
cies, as well as ourselves. Nay, even when we 

18* 



210 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

do not possess it, it ought to be a matter of 
thankfulness that others do. But we have a 
different way of thinking. We court distinc- 
tion — that I do not quarrel with — but we can 
see nothing but what has distinction to recom- 
mend it. This necessarily contracts our view 
of the Creator's beneficence within a narrow 
compass; and most unjustly. It is in those 
things which are so common as to be no dis- 
tinction, that the amplitude of the divine 
benignity is perceived. The thirty-sixth chap- 
ter of his work on Natural Theology, entitled 
" The Goodness of the Deity," from which we 
have taken the preceding paragraphs, his bio- 
grapher says, was "written under the pangs of 
the stone." 

Solomon's opinion of the beneficial effect of 
cheerfulness is easily inferred, not only from 
the manner in which he commends it, but 
the frequency. A merry hearty he says, doeth 
good like a medicine, but a broken spirit drieth 
the bones. Or, as it is better rendered per- 
haps, in the old translation, "A joyful heart 
causeth good health; but a sorrowful mind 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 211 

drieth the bones." A fourth counsel, of incal- 
culable value to those who would enjoy spirit- 
ual comfort, is to 
Be temperate. 

We refer not merely to the total disuse of 
alcoholic drinks and intoxicating drugs, which 
will be presumed, of course, but to that habit- 
ual control over every appetite which will keep 
us within the limits that are prescribed by 
both reason and health. 

Learn temperance, friends ; and hear without disdain 
The choice of water. Thus the Coan sage* 
Opin'd, and thus the learned of every school. 

In respect to drink, Dr. Johnson says " water 
is the only fluid which does not possess irri- 
tating, or at least, stimulating qualities; and in 
proportion as we rise on the scale of potation, 
from table-beer to ardent spirits, in the same 
ratio we educate the stomach and bowels for 
that state of morbid sensibility, which, in civi- 
lized life, will sooner or later supervene." 

It does not properly fall within the scope 
of the writer to furnish such details as would 



* Hippocrates. 



212 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

be expected in a dietetical treatise, and which 
would come with more authority from an ex- 
perienced physician. Burton, in his most 
extraordinary work called the "Anatomy of 
Melancholy," has given a curious disquisition 
on the intrinsic qualities of different kinds of 
food, and of their comparative tendency to 
nurture certain pleasant or painful affections 
of the mind, as well as animal propensities; 
but like many of the opinions of this eccentric 
writer, it is to be received with some material 
abatements. Dr. Rush, however, asserts that 
the effects of diet upon the moral faculty are 
more certain, though less attended to, than the 
effects of climate; that the quality, as well as 
the quantity of the aliment, has its influence; 
and that pride, cruelty, and sensuality, are as 
much the natural consequences of luxurious 
living, as are apoplexies and palsies. Fulness 
of bread, we are told, was one of the predis- 
posing causes of the vices of the cities of the 
plain. He concurs too, with Dr. Paris and 
other eminent medical writers, both foreign 
and domestic, in reprobating the too free use 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 213 

of animal food by persons of sedentary habits, 
which not only predisposes to inflammatory 
diseases, but h as a sensible influence on the 
morals. Dr. McNish, of Glasgow, quotes with 
approbation another opinion of Hufelancl, that 
" infants who are accustomed to eat much 
animal food become robust, but at the same 
time passionate, violent, and brutal." It is 
said that a man living solely on beef, as the 
Indians generally do, and full of freedom and 
fresh air, has blood very nearly approaching, 
in chemical character, to that of a lion; the 
fibrin and red globules being more abundant, 
in proportion to the liquor sanguinis, and the 
temper of his mind approximates to the indo- 
mitable savage. When the Hon. C. A. Murray 
had been living for some time entirely on 
bufialo-beef, among the Pawnee Indians, his 
body got into the true savage training, and in 
the excitement and liberty of the wilds, he 
enjoyed the perfection of his animal nature. 
In describing the kind of intoxication arising 
from over-stimulating blood, he says, "I have 
never known such excitement in any exer- 



214 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

cise as I have experienced from a solitary 
walk among the mountains; thoughts crowd 
upon thoughts which I can neither control 
nor breathe in words." The efficacy of a 
vegetable diet upon the passions, was veri- 
fied in the practice of Dr. Arbuthnot, who 
assures us that he cured several patients of 
irascible tempers, by nothing but the pre- 
scription of a simple vegetable regimen. Some 
devout persons, like Payson, have erred on 
the side of excessive abstinence; which his 
biographer pronounces to have been the great 
mistake of his life. To what extremes others 
have been carried under the influence of 
superstition, to mortify the body for the sins 
of the soul, is familiar to all who are con- 
versant with the history of Asceticism ; but the 
more common and dangerous error by far, is 
the opposite, or that of indulging the appe- 
tite too freely. 

"When we contemplate each varying tribe 
of mankind, from the turtle-eating alderman 
to the earth-devouring Ottomaque, and see him 
subsist, exclusively or collectedly, on every- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 215 

thing which air, earth, or ocean can produce, 
with, cceteris paribus, an equal degree of lon- 
gevity, we are irresistibly led to the conclusion 
that it is principally by excess that we con- 
vert food into poison, and become liable to the 
attack of that Protean host of human miseries, 
called Nervous Diseases. Thus, Dr. Combe 
reasserts, with special approbation, the pub- 
lished opinion of a distinguished American 
physician, that intemperate eating is almost a 
universal fault; that it is begun in the cradle, 
and continued till we go down to the grave ; 
that it is far more common than intemperance 
in drinking; and the aggregate of mischief 
that it does, is greater. 

Plures crapula, quam gladius. 
Gluttony kills more than the sword. 

"For every reeling drunkard that disgraces 
our country, it contains one hundred persons 
who eat to excess and suffer by the practice." 
Baglivi, a celebrated Roman physician, men- 
tions, that in Italy an unusually large propor- 
tion of the sick recovered during Lent, in 



216 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

consequence of the lower diet which is then 
observed as a part of the religious duties of 
the season. An eminent physician of London, 
writing on the influence of the luxurious habits 
of that great metropolis on the health of the 
higher classes, asserts that there is not one in 
ten whose digestive organs are in a healthy 
condition. This is proved, he says, incontest- 
ably by the tint of the eye and countenance, 
the feel of the skin, the state of the tongue, 
the stomach, and the bile. 

Let the whole subject of dietetic economy 
then, be carefully regarded by those who are 
subject to spiritual and nervous depression; 
and while the conflicting opinions of the fac- 
ulty, on the subject of diet or regimen, will 
abundantly show how " doctors disagree," yet 
they are, nevertheless, replete with suggestions 
of the highest practical value. It need hardly 
be remarked, that independent of the influence 
on the animal spirits and health, yet as pre- 
scribed by Christian morality, the appetites 
should be kept under habitual control. The 
spiritual man should learn, with the apostle 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 217 

Paul, to keep his body under. He should live 
in that elevated state of communion with God, 
that he will not be tempted to descend from 
the higher and purer enjoyments of his reli- 
gion, to seek happiness in the gratification of 
the epicurean and sensualist. But how far it 
is lawful to indulge a healthful appetite at his 
table from day to day, is a question of morals 
which cannot be settled for a Christian by any 
of the rules of medical science or physiology. 
Put a knife to thy throat, Solomon says, if thou 
be a man given to appetite. Restrain thyself, as 
if excess or repletion were death. But what 
may be received as at once the fruit of expe- 
rience and the dictate of science, has been 
expressed in the measures of a writer not less 
gifted with poetic genius than with medical 
knowledge : 

beyond the sense 

Of light refection, at the genial board 
Indulge not often, nor protract the feast 
To dull satiety. 

Dr. Holland's three rules are: 1. Not to 
eat so much nor so long, as to cause a sense 
19 



218 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

of uneasy repletion. 2. The rate of eating 
always to be so slow as to allow thorough 
mastication. 3. Use no urgent exercise, either 
of body or mind, immediately after a full meal. 
Rules," he remarks, " whose simplicity and 
familiarity may lessen their seeming value, 
yet in practice they will be found to include, 
directly or indirectly, a great proportion of the 
cases that come before the faculty for treat- 
ment." To these, however, he virtually adds a 
fourth, in a subsequent paragraph, in which 
he earnestly dehorts from the pernicious habit 
of directing the attention after eating to the 
region of the stomach, as tending greatly to 
disturb the process of digestion. To the ques- 
tion, How much ought I to eat? Dr. Hall says, 
it ought to be a sufficient rule for all men of 
common sense to reply — eat what you want, 
and as much as you want, and at regular 
times. But in the imperfect subjection to rea- 
son, instinct, and appetite, in which we find 
ourselves, a more definite guide is needed. 
The amount of food required differs with the 
different seasons. We need more in winter 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



219 



than in summer. It differs with the weather; 
more food is needed in a cold, damp, raw 
day, than in a cheerful, dry, warm one. Men 
require more food than women; those who 
labour, more than those who rest; those who 
are growing, more than those who have reached 
maturity. To lay down rules for all these, 
would require a better memory than would be 
exercised; and to weigh out the food to each 
particular case, would be attended with a very 
great deal of trouble. His opinion is, that in 
most cases, sedentary men in health eat too 
much, and that the necessity for so many hours 
of bodily exercise which many undergo, is a 
penalty for excessive indulgence of appetite. 
Doubtless a certain quantity of food is neces- 
sary to sustain the physical man in the vigor- 
ous use of his bodily functions; so is exercise 
not less needful for the twofold object, first, to 
work off and push out from the body all that 
is foreign, old, and useless; second, to replace 
these with strong, well-made particles ; thus 
keeping the system clear of all rubbish, and 
replenishing it with what is new and perfect. 



220 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

And yet it may be incidentally remarked 
here — and it contains a great practical truth — 
the less a man eats to a certain limit, the less 
he has to work off. Hence, those who eat 
little and work little, can stud)' quite as much, 
and as advantageously, as those who eat a 
great deal, and, in order to get rid of their 
surplusage, have either to spend a large share 
of their time in working, or in washing or 
scrubbing it off with hard flesh-brushes — that 
is to say, for the few minutes pleasure of the 
passage of food down the throat, hours of 
otherwise unrequited exercise have to be gone 
through, or dancing under cool shower-baths, 
or the purgatorial application of hair-gloves or 
bristle-brushes. If literary men would drink 
only water, and eat one-half less, they could 
well afford to dispense with the fruitless exer- 
cises and penances just referred to. Few per- 
sons afflicted with despondency are aware how 
their malady is often aggravated by the occa- 
sional irritation of food or drink reacting on 
their mind by reason of the morbid sensibility 
of .the stomach. Dr. Johnson says, "I have 



ON RELIGIOUS EXRERIENCE. 221 

known many persons that found themselves so 
irritable after eating certain articles of difficult 
digestion, that they avoided society till the fit 
went off." Hence the rule that he gives to 
enable each person to decide his own case is, 
44 any discomfort of body, any irritability or 
despondency of mind succeeding food or drink 
at the distance of an hour, a day, or even two 
or three days, may be regarded — other evident 
causes being absent — as a presumptive proof 
that the quantity has been too much, or the 
quality injurious." It is said, in the Life of 
President Edwards, that although of an infirm 
constitution and indifferent health, yet he was 
able to spend thirteen hours daily in his study. 
This surprising power of endurance is ex- 
plained in the succeeding paragraph, in which 
we read that he carefully observed the effects 
of different sorts of food, and selected those 
which best fitted him for mental labour. Hav- 
ing also ascertained the quantity of food which, 
while it sustained his bodily strength, left his 
mind most sprightly and active, he scrupulously 
confined himself within the prescribed limits. 
19* 



222 



INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 



But not to dwell in details that are so accessi- 
ble in elaborate treatises on this very subject, 
and that are deservedly held in the highest 
repute, we will only add, that the substance of 
what we have designed to say in the preceding 
remarks, is comprehended in an old Latin dis- 
tich, by whom composed we do not recollect : 

Si tibi deficiant medici, niedici tibi fiant 

Hsec tria; mens hilaris, requies, moderata dioeta, 

which one has paraphrased in the following 
clumsy couplet: 

Employ three physicians; first, Doctor Diet, 
Then Doctor Merryman, with Doctor Quiet. 

Another counsel to be heeded with special 
care by the desponding, is to 

Be habitually occupied. 

We refer not to bodily exercise merely, so 
essential to vigorous health, and to a lively 
flow of the animal spirits, but we speak of 
occupation for the mind, in connection with 
some useful employment, to save it from those 
morbid actings by which it is made the prey 
to its own energies. Many diseases of body are 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



223 



produced, increased, and perpetuated by the 
attention being directed to the disordered part, 
but the employment which diverts the atten- 
tion from the disease, often cures it. It is said 
that Kant was able to forget the pain of gout 
by a voluntary effort of thought; and par- 
oxysms of his disease, that would have laid 
others aside, were scarcely heeded, while his 
mind was absorbed by some problem in meta- 
physics. We once knew an enterprising and 
successful man of business, who had hardly 
reached the meridian of his life before he had 
made a handsome fortune. He was now ad- 
vised to sell his establishment, and live for the 
future more at his ease. The counsel was 
well intended; it seemed to be judicious, and 
was followed; but the sudden abstraction of so 
much care, by which his mind had been dis- 
tended, caused a collapse. He soon became 
unhappy, desponding, and would have sunk 
into a state of melancholy but for the interpo- 
sition of friends, who perceived at once his 
alarming condition, and the obvious cause. 
Without asking his consent, they re-purchased 



224 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

his place of business, and induced him to re- 
sume it. In a few weeks he recovered his 
former cheerfulness and mental energy. Em- 
ployment gave a healthful stimulus to his mind, 
which suffered no relapse to its former morbid 
state through many years to the close of a 
long and useful life. 

Whoever has noticed the amazing power of 
the thoughts in disturbing the functions of the 
body, will accord with the poet, that 

'Tis the great art of life to manage well 
The restless mind. 

This is none the less true in relation to 
religious men than to others. " There are 
many," Cecil says, "who sit at home, nursing 
themselves over a fire, and then trace up the 
natural effects of solitude, and want of air and 
exercise, into spiritual desertion. But this is 
to confound nature and grace, and to make a 
sort of mystery of that which is readily con- 
nected with a natural cause." Now and then 
we find one who appears to be happy in a sort 
of quietism, or cloistered piety, which rather 
shuns than seeks communion with what is 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 225 

without. How it will be in the world to 
come, we do not pretend to say; but it has 
never been found in this, that they are the 
happiest in religion who withdraw from all 
active occupation, and spend their whole time 
in devout contemplations. No man, it has been 
said, is ever more religious for having his mind 
constantly occupied with religion. This may 
seem a parodox, but those who know how 
little necessary connection there is between 
theological studies and spirituality of mind, 
and how much a professional familiarity with 
such subjects tends to deteriorate their influ- 
ence, will readily subscribe to the truth of the 
assertion. Although the truly pious man can 
have but one dominant motive, the glory of 
God, yet the active powers of the mind will 
find useful and pleasant exercise in a thousand 
different ways of promoting it. To be engaged 
in doing good then, is alike needful to the 
happiness of the spiritual man and to his 
health. 

Under a former head, we quoted one of four 
rules for the relief of melancholy Christians, 



226 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

and here we add another from the same au- 
thor, viz. " to avoid idleness and want of em- 
ployment; which, as it is a life not pleasing 
to God, so it is the opportunity for melancholy 
thoughts to be working, and the chiefest sea- 
son for Satan to tempt us." It has often been 
observed in relation to clergymen who have 
been laborious and useful, that they ill endure 
a change to leisure from the occupation of a 
pastoral charge; but that in their sine titulo 
condition, they are apt to become either ner- 
vous and low-spirited, or turn to doing harm. 

We were struck with a remark of Dr. Green, 
many years ago, on his retirement from Prince- 
ton, "that he did not know whether hereafter 
he should do much good; but he was resolved, 
if possible, to avoid doing mischief, which was 
more than was apt to be true of many of his 
brethren in similar circumstances." 

To brood over our spiritual maladies, watch- 
ing from day to day our changing frames, will 
no more help to attain a better spiritual condi- 
tion, than the fingering of his pulse, or exam- 
ining the tongue by the victim of dyspepsia 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 227 

will conduce to his more healthful digestion. 
In either case, the less he thinks of himself 
the better; and the only effectual expedient 
for diverting his thoughts will be found in 
some pleasant and useful occupation. Such 
was the relief which Cowper derived from his 
labour in translating Homer, and the poetical 
works of Madam Guion; and to find an anti- 
dote to his distressing melancholy was sup- 
posed to be Dr. Johnson's main inducement 
for proposing, towards the close of his life, to 
publish a translation of Thuanus. For the 
same purpose of turning his mind from its 
troubling meditations, he advised Boswell, who 
was as much given to despondency as himself, 
" never to speak of it to his friends in com- 
pany.' 5 

" Were I asked," says a well known writer, 
"upon what circumstance the prevention of 
low spirits chiefly depended, I should borrow 
the ancient orator's mode of enforcing the 
| leading principle of his art, and reply — em- 
ployment — employment — employment. This 
is the grand panacea for the taedium vitae, and 



228 



INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 



all the train of fancied evils which prove so 
much more insupportable than real ones. It 
is a medicine that may be presented in a 
thousand forms, all equally efficacious." 

We remember the case of a fellow-student 
in our theological course, whose mind was so 
disquieted with fears about his spiritual condi- 
tion, that it became a serious question whether 
he should not renounce the hope of entering 
the ministry; but upon a statement of his case 
to one of his teachers, he was advised to dis- 
continue his examinations of himself for a 
season, take it for granted, if he pleased, that 
his state was as bad as he feared, but to turn 
his attention to the case of others, pray more 
for them, and resolve to do all in his power 
for their salvation. This counsel was received, 
and was followed with the happiest results. 
His mind was gradually relieved, his spirits 
became buoyant and cheerful, and after* finish- 
ing his studies, he entered the sacred profes- 
sion with a joyful hope of his calling and sal- 
vation, which continued to the end of his life. 
Rev. Dr. Lobdell was at one time in a state 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



229 



of distressing doubt about three great ques- 
tions pertaining to Christianity — Whether it 
was true] — Was he personally interested in 
it? — Had he been called of God to preach 
it ? The very solicitude which he felt on the 
subject was evidence of his spiritual change, 
although he seemed not to know it. But 
instead of first undertaking to investigate the 
evidences of Christianity, then the subject of 
his personal faith and salvation, and, last of 
all, his call to the ministry, the process was 
exactly reversed. He first resolved to make 
it the purpose of his life to preach the gospel. 
1 "Then, and not till then, did he experience 
: the preciousness of the Saviour to his own 
soul." His doubts and difficulties all vanished 
like darkness and mist before the rising sun. 
It was by doing of the will of God that he 
was made to know the truth of his doctrine. 
- And so on in all his future life, whenever 
■ doubts and difficulties revived, they were re- 
■ ' moved, not by reasoning, but by losing sight 
of them in doing the will of his Divine Mas- 
i ■ ter. We would say, then, to every troubled 
20 



280 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

believer, copy his example. Let not an ele- 
vated condition in life, and wealth, if you have 
them, tempt you to be idle. If not required 
to toil for your daily bread, yet let a regard 
for your happiness and health, and the moni- 
tions of conscience, make you as industrious 
as if you were. Consider your affluence and 
leisure as talents, by means of which you have 
the enviable opportunity of promoting the wel- 
fare of others, gratuitously, in a thousand 
modes, which are forbidden to others. Go 
join yourself to the most active benefactors 
of society; enter their ranks, or plant yourself 
in the van. Take your full share in the 
labours of the Sunday-school or Bible-class 
teacher, the distribution of tracts, the 'visiting 
of the poor and sick, and afflicted. Deny 
yourself many gratifications of ease, and plea- 
sure, and advantage, for the sake of redeem- 
ing the time and the means of doing more 
good. Aim directly, like Harlan Page, at the 
single object of saving men's souls; and whe- 
ther your success shall correspond to your 
wishes or not, you shall enjoy the reflex ad- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



231 



vantage of your benevolence. In watering 
others, you shall be watered yourself. 

We are aware of the difficulty of complying 
with this counsel, in many cases, and none are 
more peculiarly trying than those of clergy- 
men, who, from declining health, advancing 
age, or some untoward events, have been dis- 
lodged from posts of active usefulness, and 
have now nothing to do which is suited to 
their character, capacity, and circumstances. 
Such, it is well known, is often the unhappy 
condition of some of the most useful, as well 
as respectable and venerable ministers of the 
church; and it is one of the ominous signs of 
the times, that their number seems to be in- 
creasing. From the emoluments of their call- 
ing, few derive more than the means for a 
very frugal maintenance of their family, and 
therefore, when by reason of age and multi- 
plied infirmities, the grasshopper has become a 
burden, they find superadded to all their afflic- 
tions the trials of poverty. "We will not en- 
large; but for ourselves, we are constrained 
to say, that we feel it to be a material defect 



232 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

in our ecclesiastical economy, that their con- 
dition and claims are not more particularly 
and tenderly regarded; that in view of the 
resources and benevolence of the Church, some- 
thing has not been projected at least, if not 
carried into effect, by which such an important 
casus omissus should have been provided for, 
some feasible plan by which their remaining 
strength, their stores of learning and experi- 
ence, may be turned to a profitable account, 
and these Mnasons of the ministry made happy 
and useful during the remnant of their pil- 
grimage. Persons subject to depression should 

"Watch and promote bodily health." 

A counsel which we quote from a letter of 
the friend mentioned in our introductory note. 
"We did not then know to what extent his 
sense of the value of health was suggested by 
the precarious state of his own. The influence 
of the body on the mental and moral faculties, 
shows the importance of a scrupulous attention 
to the former; to the use of all the means by 
which it may be preserved from any form of 
disease, and in the healthful exercise of all its 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 233 

functions. The fact cannot be impressed too 
deeply, that the connection between our sad 
and joyous emotions and our health is as 
inseparable as is that between the machinery 
of a clock or watch and the hands on the dial- 
plate: the movements which meet the eye are 
right or wrong, according to the condition of 
the wheels and parts that are invisible — 

Sine animo corpus, nec sine corpore 
Animus, bene valere potest. 

The mind or body ill, each partner feels 
The sufferings of the other. 

On a subject of so much interest we have 
the teachings of many authors, some of whom 
not only weary by their diffuse details, but 
greatly perplex the mind by their disagree- 
ment among themselves. To those who need 
instruction most, and who have not the oppor- 
tunity nor the time for much reading of this 
sort, it may be useful, at the risk of being 
thought prolix, to recapitulate and present 
again, in a connected form and with some 
amplification, a few of the instructions given 
very briefly in the preceding pages on the 
20* 



234 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

authority of Drs. Holland, Hall, Kush, and 
others, that enforce the "duty of health," such 
as 

Due discrimination and self-control in 
relation to our food. 

That we abstain from whatever is found to 
injure, and restrict ourselves rigidly to that 
sort and amount of aliment, whether animal or 
vegetable, which is most conducive to our gene- 
ral vigour and enjoyment, and which best com- 
ports with an active, cheerful, and sound mind 
in a sound body. Plutarch says that his coun- 
trymen, the Boeotians, were remarkable for 
their stupidity because they ate too much. 
They were good trencher-men, and good for 
nothing else. Let these and preceding hints 
on diet be properly heeded by the religious 
man, and his own experience will prove that 
his spiritual as well as intellectual enjoyment 
and usefulness are closely connected both with 
the quality and quantity of his daily food, and 
the right times for taking it. Eichard Cum- 
berland says in his Memoirs, Nature has given 
me the hereditary blessing of a constitutional 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 235 

and habitual temperance, that revolts at excess 
of any sort, and never suffers appetite to load 
the frame. I am accordingly as fit to resume 
my book or my pen the instant after my meal, 
as I was in the freshest hours of the morning. 

Give both mind and body sufficient rest, 
and at the proper season. 

Not a small proportion of that despondency 
which is so incident to the sedentary class 
comes from excessive study at unseasonable 
hours. It is one of the "diseases of litera- 
ture," to which good men are as liable as 
others. It is night study, Dr. Johnson says, 
that ruins the constitution, by keeping up a 
bewildered chaos of impressions on the brain 
during the succeeding sleep — if that can be 
called sleep which is constantly interrupted by 
incoherent dreams, and half-waking trains of 
thought. Physiologists have proved that peri- 
odical rest is necessary to the reproduction of 
that power in the nerves by which the will is 
enabled to act on the muscles. A due propor- 
tion of repose, therefore, is essential to the 
proper manifestation of mind in the orderly 



236 



INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 



use of the body. We have known many re- 
markable cases of nervous disorder which were 
connected with this sort of imprudence. Night 
watching, or late sitting up, was reprobated in 
a doctor's Manual for the Nervous, written two 
hundred years ago, as tending to "tire and 
waste the animal spirits, by keeping them too 
long upon duty, debilitating nature, and there- 
by shortening the period of usefulness," ac- 
cording to the maxim, 

Quod cxret alterna requ'e, durable non est. 
What would endure, must have alternate rest. 

A theological student, who was about aban- 
doning his studies in utter discouragement 
from declining health, was induced to forego 
his purpose until he had tried what could be 
done for him by a change of habits as to 
eating, sleeping, study, and rest. The new 
regimen proved so beneficial, that without the 
aid of drugs, by which he imagined his life 
had been sustained, he began to recover. In a 
short time his mind became cheerful, he re- 
gained his bodily vigour, and resumed his stu- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 237 

dies, which he afterwards prosecuted with equal 
profit and pleasure. It was the Rev. Dr. Mil- 
ler's counsel not to study much by night. 
Begin with the dawn of day, and improve 
every moment of daylight that you can secure ; 
but be extremely cautious of night studies. I 
have known them to injure incurably the eyes 
and the general health of many unwary stu- 
dents before they apprehended the least danger. 
Study, to a late hour at night, ought never to 
be indulged at all by any one who values his 
health. Two hours sleep before midnight are 
worth three, if not four, after it; and he who 
frequently allows himself to remain at his sti*- 
dies after eleven o'clock in the evening, is 
probably laying up in store for himself bitter 
repentance. A late writer ascribes the excel- 
lent health and mental vigour of M. Guizot, 
w 7 hile Minister of France under Louis Philippe, 
to his "prodigious faculty for sleep." After 
the most boisterous and tumultuous sittings at 
the Chambers, where he had been baited by 
the opposition in the most savage manner, he 
was accustomed to go home, throw himself 



238 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

upon a couch, and fall immediately into a 
profound sleep, from which he was not dis- 
turbed till midnight, when proofs of the Moni- 
teur were brought to him for inspection. It 
is well known that Henry Kirke White, Urqu- 
hart, and Henry Martyn, suffered at times from 
extreme depression of spirits, caused by an 
overtaxing of their mind, which occasioned the 
premature death of two, and probably abridged 
the life of the third. " My discoveries," Henry 
Martyn says, "are all at an end, and I am 
just where I was, in perfect darkness!" — a fit- 
ting sequel to the paragraph in his diary by 
Which it is preceded: "I scarcely know how 
this week has passed; I remember, however, 
that one night I did not sleep a wink. One 
discovery succeeded another so rapidly in He- 
brew, Arabic, and Greek, that I was some- 
times almost in ecstasy." Yv^hat effect could 
be linked to a cause more closely and insepa- 
rably than were the collapse of soul he speaks 
of, with his habitual imprudence in the vio- 
lation of well-known physical laws'? 

Many suffer great depression of spirits from 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 239 

the injurious effects of narcotics, especially 
in the form of tobacco. The name of minis- 
ters who use it, to the prejudice of their 
health, is legion. For this, and other reasons, 
some ecclesiastical bodies have made it a sub- 
ject -of discipline. Not long ago, a candidate 
for the ministry at the West was refused his 
license on account of his declining to give the 
habit up. Cowper greatly admired the Rev. 
Mr. Bull, of Newport-Pagnell, for his genius, 
literature, fine taste, and lovely temper — but, 
alas! nothing is perfect, he writes in a playful, 
but half serious letter, preserved by Haley, 
"the Bull smokes tobacco." In the famous 
" Counterblast to Tobacco" of King James the 
First, the custom of smoking is anathematized 
as " loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, 
paineful to the braine, dangerous to the lungs; 
and in the black, stinking fume thereof, 
nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke 
of the pit that is bottomless." In the time 
of Elizabeth, an edict was published against 
its use for fear lest England should become 



240 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

like the barbarians from whom its use was 
derived. 

Anglorum corpora in barbarorum naturam degenerasse, quum 
iidem ac barbari delectentur. 

Dr. Dunglison told the writer, that of the 
many cases of functional affections of the heart 
that he had seen, particularly among young 
men, a large proportion appeared to be owing 
to an immoderate use of tobacco. The accom- 
plished author of "Letters on Clerical Habits 
and Manners," says that no class of persons are 
more apt to fall into excess in the use of 
tobacco, in every way, than students; and no 
class of students, perhaps, more remarkably 
than those who are devoted to the study of 
theology. Whether their sedentary habits, and 
especially their habits of stated composition, 
form the peculiar temptation by which so many 
of them are unhappily beguiled, I know not; 
but it has fallen to my lot to know a very 
large number of ministers, young and old, who 
by excessive smoking, chewing, or snuffing, 
have deranged the tone of their stomachs; 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 241 

have undermined their health; have seriously 
injured their voices; have had the fumes of 
tobacco so thoroughly inwrought in their per- 
sons and clothing, that it became impossible 
for many delicate people to sit near them with 
impunity. They have laid themselves, after a 
while, under so absolute a necessity of smoking 
or chewing incessantly, that they have been 
obliged to withdraw from company, or from 
the most urgent business, and even to break 
off in the midst of a meal, and retire to smoke, 
or else run the risk of a severe affection of the 
stomach. In vain do you remind such people, 
when they are young, and when their habits 
are forming, that the use of tobacco is, in most 
cases, unheal thful, and in many extremely so; 
that if they use it at all, they are in danger 
of being betrayed into excess, in spite of every 
resolution to the contrary. They will not be- 
lieve you ; they are in no danger ; others may 
have insensibly fallen into excess, and become 
offensive, but they never will. Onward they 
go with inflexible self-will, as an ox goeth to 
the slaughter} resolving to follow appetite at 
21 



242 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

all hazards, until some of them become them- 
selves fearful examples of the evils against 
which they were warned! The truth is, no 
man — especially no young man — ought ever 
to use tobacco in any shape, who can possibly 
avoid it; that is, who does not find himself 
reduced to the same necessity of taking it, as 
a medicine, that he is now and then of taking 
calomel; in which case, instead of allowing 
himself to contract a fondness for the article, 
and living upon it daily, a wise man will take 
it, as he would a most nauseous medicine, in 
as small quantities, and as seldom as possible. 
If the most servile votary of the segar, the 
quid, and the snuff-box, could take even a 
cursory glance at the ruined health, the trem- 
bling nerves, the impaired mental faculties, 
the miserable tippling habits, the disgraceful 
slavery, and the revolting fume, to which they 
have insensibly conducted many an unsuspect- 
ing devotee, he would fly with horror before 
even the possible approaches of danger. 

But our venerable monitor reprobates the 
practice as not less a trespass against our neigh- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 243 

bour than injurious to ourselves. I have known, 
he says, some persons who in consequence of 
their habitually chewing tobacco, or some other 
substance, or smoking, were under a necessity 
so constant and pressing of discharging saliva 
from their mouths, that they were really a 
trouble to themselves, as well as to everybody 
else. I have certainly known, at least, one 
tobacco-chewing clergyman, of whom a re- 
spectable professor of religion declared that he 
would most cheerfully pay his board for a 
week or more at a tavern, or at any other 
place, rather than endure his company at a 
single meal, or for one evening in his own 
dwelling. How melancholy, that a minister 
of religion, instead of being a pattern of neat- 
ness and purity, and possessing such manners 
as to render his company attractive to all 
classes of people, should allow himself, by his 
personal habits, to drive all cleanly and deli- 
cate persons from his presence! But the in- 
dulgence ceases to be a mere offence against 
taste, when we contemplate its havoc of life. 
According to the estimate of discerning physi- 



244 INFLUENCE OE HEALTH AND DISEASE 

cians, not less than twenty thousand die in 
the United States every year from the use of 
tobacco. In Germany, where this pernicious 
habit is far more common, it is said that of 
all the deaths between the ages of eighteen 
and thirty-five, one-half originate in the waste 
of constitution by smoking. But in unnum- 
bered cases where it does not destroy life, it 
exhausts and deranges the nervous powers, and 
produces some of the most distressing and un- 
manageable ailments. M. Bouisson, a French 
writer, has lately published some startling facts 
upon the danger of smoking. He states that 
cancer in the mouth has grown so frequent 
from the use of tobacco, that it now forms 
one of the most dreaded diseases in the hospi- 
tals. From 1845 to 1859 he has himself per- 
formed sixty-eight operations for cancers in 
the lips in the Hospital St. Eloi. The use of 
tobacco rarely produces lip cancer in youth. 
Almost all of Bouisson's patients had passed 
the age of forty. The disease is also more 
frequent with individuals of the humbler class, 
who smoke short pipes, and tobacco of inferior 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 245 

quality, while with the orientals who are care- 
ful to preserve the coolness of the mouth-piece 
by the transmission of the smoke through 
water, it is unknown ; showing that it is gene- 
rated more by the constant application of heat 
to the lips, than by the inhaling of nicotine. 
It is a common cause of disease in the sto- 
mach, and especially those forms that go under 
the name of dyspepsia, with all their kindred 
train of evils. It also exerts a disastrous in- 
fluence upon the mind, and frequently pro- 
duces an enfeebling of the memory, a confusion 
of ideas, irritability of temper, want of energy, 
an unsteadiness of purpose, melancholy, and 
sometimes insanity. These are the ultimate 
effects of the use of tobacco ; and though one 
may not perceive them in his own case, we 
are assured that the tendency of the drug is 
always toward disease. 

Much that is said of the evils of tobacco 
may be repeated of alcoholic drinks, and of 
stimulating or stupefying drugs. The prac- 
tice of many, in their dejection from physical 
21* 



246 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

and other causes, to resort to opiates for re- 
lief, is as noxious to the health as it is 
immoral. Both Doctors Good and Cullen reject 
them as pernicious in cases of despondency. 
They seem to heighten the pressure of our 
malady only to let it hang upon us after- 
ward more heavily. The way in which such 
agents operate injuriously, is "by disturbing 
the chemistry of life to such a degree that 
the nerve-matter no longer duly subserves its 
purpose as a medium through which the soul 
exercises volition, and perceives sensation." 
Dr. Moore says that narcotic substances seem 
to operate on the body by interfering with 
the affinity existing between the blood and 
the air, allowing the accumulation of carbon, 
or other noxious agents, in the circulating 
fluid, and thus arresting the action of the 
nervous system. On this principle, every kind 
of intoxication disturbs the voluntary opera- 
tions of the mind by poisoning the brain, 
and thence impeding the influence of the will 
upon the circulation, by preventing its control 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 247 

over the nerves of sense and motion. Another 
indispensable auxiliary to health, is 
Exercise in pure air. 

The tendency of the depressing passions is 
to render us inert, taciturn, averse to society, 
and misanthropic. The languor and restless- 
ness that usually attend this disordered state, 
make us unwilling to leave our retirement for 
the open air, or for the bodily efforts which 
our health calls for. 

Ignavia corpus liebetat, labor firmat. 

Indolence makes the body feeble, labour gives its strength. 

It is not to be expected that in so limited 
a treatise as this, we should give a tithe of 
the excellent instructions or counsels which 
may be quoted to any extent from standard 
authors, in regard to the best means of pre- 
serving health, or for restoring it when im- 
paired: what they say of diet, drinks, drugs, 
sleep, employment, bathing, riding, gymnastic 
exercises, walking, generous living, abstinence, 
&c. We merely allude to so copious a sub- 
ject in this general way, to direct the reader's 



248 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

attention to what the wisest of them have 
written, rather than to any instructions of our 
own. But it ought to be specially noticed 
by the seeker after health, that while the 
disagreement of writers on the broad subject 
of regimen is notorious, they are in perfect 
harmony about the utility of exercise properly 
taken, and of wholesome air. One of their 
most distinguished authors says, if we would 
preserve our nerves in a state to favour mental 
exercise, we must insure our access to pure 
air. It is not enough to be guided by our 
senses in this matter; for unless we are sup- 
plied with fresh air at the rate of at least 
twenty cubic inches for every breath while 
tranquil, and twenty-five while in action, we 
shall be in danger. There is a great proba- 
bility that the temper of an assembly is often 
vastly influenced by the state of the air which 
it breathes, and to talk of a moral atmosphere 
is not altogether a figure of speech. It is 
certain, that a crowded audience is usually 
most excitable at the commencement of a ser- 
vice, and the most attentive towards its close; 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 249 

and it not unfrequently happens, "that at the 
end of a long sermon the flushed faces and 
hazy eyes of the congregation too often indi- 
cate that bad blood is adding its influence to 
aggravate the mental confusion produced by 
a disorderly discourse." Dr. Hall says, that 
"while exercise tends to abate disease under 
all circumstances, physicians recommend it to 
be taken in open air, in order to produce more 
immediate effects. The reason is, because a 
breath of air taken into the lungs, perfectly 
light and pure, conies out the next moment 
so laden with the impurity which it took from 
the blood, that it is a perfect stench, and would 
destroy life if breathed again; but coming from 
the body warm and rarefied, it ascends to re- 
gions where there is no animal life for it to 
destroy, to return to the lower world no more 
until it has been restored to its former purity." 
No persons better understand the value of 
these two helpers to a vigorous use of both 
the mental and bodily faculties, than some of 
our most successful scholars. In " Peter's Let- 
ters to his Kinsfolk," he gives us an amusing 



250 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

account of the boyish gymnastics of certain 
illustrious Scotchmen in the early part of the 
present century, who were wont to recruit their 
minds, after severe study, by relaxing in the 
athletic sports of youth, according to the advice 
of Horace to his friend Virgil, 

Misce stultitiam consiliis brevem. 
Dulce est desipere in loco. 

Mix a short folly with thy laboured schemes, 
'Tis joyous folly that unbends the mind. — Francis. 

The men that "Peter" speaks of, were most 
of them already beyond the meridian of life. 
"I was not a little astonished," he says, "when 
somebody proposed a trial of strength in leap- 
ing. Nor was my astonishment at all dimi- 
nished when Mr. Playfair began to throw off 
his coat and waistcoat, and to prepare himself 
for taking his part in the contest; and, indeed, 
the whole party did the same, except Jeffrey 
alone, who was dressed in a short green jacket, 
with scarcely any skirts, and therefore seemed 
to consider himself as already sufficiently "ac- 
cinctus ludo." I used to be a good leaper in 
my day, but I cut a very poor figure among 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 251 

these sinewy Caledonians. "With the excep- 
tion of Leslie, they all jumped wonderfully; 
and Jeffrey was quite miraculous, considering 
his brevity of stride. But the greatest wonder 
of the whole was Mr. Playfair. He also is a 
short man, and cannot be less than seventy, 
yet he took his stand with the assurance of an 
athletic, and positively beat every one of us. 
I was quite thunderstruck, never having heard 
the least hint of his being so great a geome- 
trician in this sense of the word." We will 
only add to these suggestions with regard to 
exercise of mind and body, the counsel of one 
restored from prolonged melancholy, and who 
recites the teachings of his own experience. 
" Seek some suitable employment for exercise, 
and at the same time for diverting your 
thoughts from your trouble. Neglect, refuse, 
or reject this, and you have no ground of 
hope. If you are not confined to your bed, 
or if you can barely rise off it and walk, and 
this only at times, you should think of some 
useful, proper, and, if possible, profitable em- 
ployment, at which you might do at least a 



252 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

little. In vain will you think and say, that 
you are too weak; all experience loudly ex- 
claims — take exercise! take exercise! — if you 
can but walk or creep a little; and this espe- 
cially to patients of your order. It is true 
that you do at times become very weak, but 
if you have no local disorder, or whether or 
not your weakness is of a peculiar kind; it 
will both come on and go off quicker than 
the weakness of patients labouring under other 
diseases." 

"While arranging our thoughts on the sub- 
ject of this volume, we met with the following 
remarks of the Rev. Dr. N. L. Rice. They 
contain so many excellent counsels, reaffirming 
our own, that we are constrained to transfer 
them to our pages without change or abridg- 
ment. He is writing with special reference to 
his clerical brethren in their state of mental 
depression; but his suggestions are scarcely 
less adapted to the case of desponding Chris- 
tians in general: 

"There are some ministers and Christians 
who can say, as Dr. Daniel Baker said, 6 I am 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



253 



always happy;' but there are many others 
who have seasons of depression of shorter or 
longer continuance, and of greater or less in- 
tensity. They are sometimes caused by some 
slight bodily indisposition, affecting the ner- 
vous system; sometimes by nervous exhaustion 
from loss of sleep or too long continued mental 
exertion; sometimes by disappointed hopes; 
and often by erroneous views as to prospects 
of usefulness, &c. They seem to be of the 
nature of melancholy, only they do not so 
generally create doubts of one's piety; and the 
causes being slight or transient, the mind soon 
recovers its cheerfulness. But whatever cause 
or causes produce these depressions, they are 
not only very distressing, but for the time 
being they unfit the mind for the discharge of 
any duty. We cannot read, for the mind 
takes no interest in any book, and wanders 
from what we are reading to its own gloomy 
imaginings. We cannot prepare a sermon, 
for the mind will not take hold of any subject. 
We feel, as we wander from text to text, that 
there is not a text in the Bible on which we 
22 



254 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

could preach. We lose hours in the vain effort 
to choose a text, and then utterly fail to satisfy 
ourselves. We feel disinclined to visit; we do 
not wish to converse with any one, unless we 
can talk gloomily to some bosom friend. The 
pastor feels as if his usefulness were at an end 
in his present field, and half resolves to resign 
his pastoral charge. To those who are trou- 
bled with such depressions, as ive have often 
been, we venture a few suggestions: 

1. If it can be avoided, it is better not 
to attempt any mental labour whilst the de- 
pression continues. Whatever may be the 
cause, the fact is — -the nervous system is out 
of tune. There is exhaustion and an irritable 
condition; and any attempt to force the mind 
to work will increase the difficulty: and the 
work, whilst doubly difficult, will not be as 
well done. Walk or ride out; breathe the 
fresh air, and converse with Nature. Vigorous 
muscular exercise, especially if at the same 
time the mind is amused, will often allay 
nervous irritation and depression. Or if there 
is general prostration of the system, and a feel- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 255 

ing of weariness, take half an hour's sleep; 
and you will be surprised at the virtue that 
is in ' tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy 
sleep.' Then a cup of good coffee will often 
make one feel like a new man. Often, when 
worn out with continuous preaching, we have 
found surprising relief from this source. All 
might not find the same benefit from it. 

2. If it is absolutely necessary to preach 
under such depressions, two suggestions will be 
found important, viz. 1. Select a subject which 
demands, at the outset, intellectual effort. De- 
pressions, such as we are considering, interfere 
far more with the emotions than with the in- 
tellectual perceptions; and if the intellect can 
get fairly to work in the effort to prove some 
proposition, or to explain some point of doc- 
trine or duty, the emotions will gradually rise 
in the progress of the discussion, and the pain- 
ful depression will entirely disappear. 2. Com- 
mence the discourse with the explanation of a 
word, or the statement of a fact or principle, 
and let the mind pass without special effort 
from thought to thought, and it will, in a few 



256 



INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 



minutes, work both vigorously and pleasantly. 
To select a subject which, from the beginning, 
appeals to the emotions, or is hortatory, or to 
commence at a point above one's own state of 
feeling, are both unsafe; for in either case the 
mind, instead of rising, sinks into deeper de- 
pression, and the preacher retires from the 
pulpit with the distressing feeling that he has 
made a failure. 

3.. It is unsafe to come to any new con- 
clusions, or materially to change one's plans, 
whilst labouring under such depressions. At 
such times nothing appears in its true light. 
We are likely to err in regard to the state 
of feeling in our congregations; and difficul- 
ties, which at other times would produce no 
discouragement, appear insurmountable. In 
our own experience, once and again, an hour's 
sleep, a ride to the country, or a good cup 
of coffee, has removed mountains of difficulty, 
and driven away dark clouds that seemed to 
threaten ruin to all our plans of usefulness. 
The forming of important plans, which are to 
give direction to our labours for life, or at 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



257 



least for years, requires a clear intellect and a 
manly vigour. It is often difficult, though it 
is most important, to avoid talking and acting 
unwisely in these fits of despondency. 

4. There is little use in attempting to 
reason persons out of these gloomy moods. 
The effort to reason away a headache would 
be about as successful. The trouble is physi- 
cal; the body is affecting the animal spirits, 
and thus obscuring the views and paralyzing 
the energies of the mind. It is generally even 
more unwise to ridicule the unreasonable con- 
ceits of persons who are low-spirited. Des- 
pondency is something strangely contradictory. 
It is very distressing; yet the mind nurses it 
as though it were a most delicious feeling. 
Ridicule appears unfeeling and cruel, and only 
fixes the mind more firmly in its gloomy state. 
If it can be diverted to some agreeable subject, 
the advantage will be very great ; and a hearty 
laugh sometimes drives away all the demons 
of melancholy. 

Some years ago, a minister from Virginia 
was lying sick at our house in Cincinnati. 
22* 



258 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

He had nearly recovered; but, as it often hap- 
pens, he had become very desponding, and 
seriously concluded that he should not live to 
reach home. Just while he was talking thus 
gloomily, our family physician came in. Dis- 
covering the desponding state of the invalid, 
he gradually turned the conversation into a 
more pleasant channel ; and in half an hour 
he had the sick preacher laughing heartily. 
When the doctor left, he dressed himself, and 
w r alked about the house; and on the next day 
went on his journey. 

Others, as well as ministers of the gospel, 
are afflicted with what is jestingly called the 
blues; and the suggestions already made may 
be of some advantage to them. A little timely 
rest and diversion will throw sunshine over 
the affairs of a man, which in hours of gloom 
seem desperate; and the Christian who is just 
ready to give up his class in the Sabbath- 
school, will resume his labours with cheerful- 
ness." 

In the fourth chapter of Dr. Alexander's 
"Thoughts on Religious Experience," will be 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 259 

found, among many wise counsels to persons 
subject to spiritual depression, some very strik- 
ing examples, interspersed with judicious re- 
marks. The importance of special watchfulness 
and prayer against the invasion of melancholy 
in the decline of life, especially when the 
tendency is constitutional, may be inferred 
from the cases of two persons who were over- 
whelmed with this malady at last, though as 
far from it in early life as any that the writer 
ever knew. 

The first was a man of extraordinary tal- 
ents, and eloquence; bold and decisive in his 
temper, and fond of company and good cheer. 
When about fifty-five or six years of age, 
without any external cause to produce the 
effect, his spirits began to sink, and feelings 
of melancholy to seize upon him. He avoided 
company, but I had frequent occasion to see 
him, and sometimes he could be engaged in 
conversation, when he could speak as judi- 
ciously as before; but he soon reverted to his 
dark melancholy mood. On one occasion he 
mentioned his case to me, and observed with 



260 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

emphasis, that he had no power whatever to 
resist the disease, and said he, with despair in 
his countenance, 4 1 shall soon be utterly over- 
whelmed.' And so it turned out, for the dis- 
ease advanced until it ended in the worst form 
of mania, and soon terminated his life. The 
other was the case of a gentleman who had 
held office in the American army in the Revo- 
lutionary war. About the same age, or a little 
later, he lost his cheerfulness, which had never 
been interrupted before, and by degrees, sunk 
into a most deplorable state of melancholy, 
which as in the former case, soon ended in 
death. In this case, the first thing which I 
noticed, was a morbid sensibility of the moral 
sense, which filled him with remorse, for acts 
which had little or no moral turpitude attached 
to them. Let the depressed and desponding 

Look habitually to Christ. 

A counsel, the most important, as it is the 
most comprehensive of all that have been 
offered. Look to Him continually for his as- 
cension gift, the Comforter, to purify from sin, 
to help in overcoming the world, the flesh, and 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 261 

the devil. Without me ye can do nothing , says 
the Saviour; and through Christ strengthening 
me, says his great apostle, I can do all things. 
" Look forward to Jesus Christ," is the counsel 
of Mr. Rogers, " when you find things per- 
plexed and troubled in your own souls ; look 
to Him, and in the direct acts of faith, we 
have nobler objects to converse withal than 
w 7 hen we look and pore upon our guilty selves. 
When we look into our troubled hearts, we 
can see nothing beside confusion and disorder 
there; but we may at the same time discern 
an all-sufficient fulness in God and Christ to 
relieve our wants. It is a long and tedious 
work to consider the several steps by which 
we are to proceed in such a case, whether we 
have believed or not ; our duty is at this very 
instant to believe — i. e., under a penitent sense 
of what w T e have done amiss, to look unto 
Christ for help. We must carefully distin- 
guish between justification and sanctification; 
between those habits and those holy actions 
that are the effects of faith, and faith itself. 
Our sanctification is full of imperfection; but 



262 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

that righteousness of Christ, wherein alone we 
are to trust for acceptance with God, is com- 
plete and perfect." Dr. Church, President of 
the Medical Society of Pittsburgh, Pennsylva- 
nia, mentions numerous facts to illustrate the 
efficacy of faith in Christ in the prevention 
and cure of diseases of body as well as mind. 
As health is the result of nicely-balanced appe- 
tites and passions, so of course anything that 
exerts a regulating or controlling influence 
over these in such a manner as to attune them 
into harmony, will essentially aid us in fore- 
stalling diseases, as well as in curing them. 
Such a power as Dr. Church ascribes to evan- 
gelical faith, would seem to be implied in the 
language of Dr. Bell, who says that " so inti- 
mate is the connection between physical com- 
fort and moral well-being, that the one cannot 
be seriously affected without the other suffer- 
ing." Mr. Shrubsole tells us in his Christian 
Memoirs, that he was once reduced so low that 
his case was apparently hopeless. For hours 
he was lying in convulsions, and during this 
time he was in a state of great spiritual dark- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



263 



ness and distress of mind. But so soon as the 
light of divine truth broke in upon him, and 
he experienced the support of true faith, his 
convulsions left him, and he rapidly recovered. 
Dr. Church mentions the case of several sick 
persons of advanced age, who would probably 
have died under the power of these attacks, 
but for the perfect composure of mind and 
freedom from fear that were ministered by 
their faith. In view of the many facts con- 
cerning the remedial influence of faith alle- 
ged by other physicians of equal eminence, 
Dr. Ashbel Green takes occasion to combat 
what he calls a " serious evil." He refers to 
the " absurd, cruel, and wicked opinion," enter- 
tained by many physicians, and embraced by 
many of their patients, that a clergyman must 
be kept out of a sick-room — at least till the 
person is past recovery; an opinion which he 
avers was proved fallacious by his own experi- 
ence in the pastoral charge of one of the largest 
congregations in the United States for more 
than the fourth part of a century, during which 
time he never knew an instance in which his 



264 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

ministerial visitations of the sick were appre- 
hended, so far as he knew, to be injurious. 
What excuse then can be given, he asks, for 
depriving the sick of religious aid, when facts 
innumerable demonstrate that it may be afford- 
ed, not merely without harm, but often with 
evident advantage in helping the physician. 
The same sentiments on this important subject 
w T ere entertained by his friend, Dr. Rush, who 
enumerates among the duties of a physician, 
"piety towards God, a respect for religion, and 
regular attendance on public worship." With- 
out such moral endowments, he will meet 
with many cases of disease which he wants 
the requisite qualifications to treat. The suf- 
ferers need a medical counsellor who can point 
them to the balm of Gilead, and the Physician 
there. They must be directed beyond the 
remedy of secondary or merely physical causes 
to Him who can make them efficacious. And 
to mention all the cures that have been per- 
formed by faith and hope, he says, "would 
require many pages." But while the despond- 
ing look to Christ, and pray for themselves, 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 265 

let them seek an interest in the prayers of 
others. It is believed that the restoration of 
the Rev. Mr. Rogers, several times referred to 
in the preceding pages, was in answer to the 
special prayers of his pious friends and breth- 
ren in the ministry, many of whom were most 
earnest and importunate in their intercessions, 
till at length his mind was completely relieved. 
He has left a monument of this deliverance 
from his dreadful thraldom in a book well 
worthy of the perusal of those who suffer under 
spiritual distress from physical or any other 
causes. But the prevailing temptation of 
Christians of this temperament, as we have 
shown in another place, is to look to them- 
selves, to watch their own fluctuating frames, 
canvass their motives and conduct, as if they 
expected to find the living among the dead. 
As if the Israelite in the wilderness, bitten of 
the fiery serpent, had depended for his reco- 
very upon his former temperance, or the 
strength of his constitution, and not upon 
looking to the brazen image. Such reviews 
of the past and searchings of heart, are not 
23 



266 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

only proper, but they are exceedingly impor- 
tant in many respects, but not for spiritual 
comfort in distress, nor for aid to arrive at 
assurance. To look back, as one observes, is 
more than we can sustain without going back. 
Indeed the better the Christian, the more 
spiritually minded and holy, the more does he 
usually discover to cause sorrow, and the keen- 
est self-reproach, whenever he takes a retros- 
pect of his past life and experience. For many 
years, we are told, that even Baxter was in 
great perplexity about himself, for reasons 
which have been a common occasion of doubt- 
ing among serious inquirers in every age of 
the church: it was because he could not trace 
so distinctly the workings of the Spirit on his 
heart, as they were described in some practical 
writers, to whom he was directed for instruc- 
tion, and he could not ascertain the time of his 
conversion. Because he felt great hardness of 
heart; supposed himself to be religious from 
early education rather than conviction of the 
Spirit; to be influenced more by fear than 
by love ; and because his grief and humiliation 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



267 



on account of sin were not greater. But he 
was afterwards satisfied that these were not 
sufficient nor scriptural grounds for doubting 
his personal interest in the salvation of Christ. 
Upon which, Orme 5 his accomplished biogra- 
pher, remarks, that persons who are agitated 
with perplexities similar to those of Baxter, 
are frequently directed to means little calcu- 
lated to afford relief. It is very questionable 
whether any individual will ever obtain com- 
fort by making himself, or the evidences of 
personal religion, the object of chief attention. 
All hope to the guilty creature is exterior to 
himself. In the human character, even under 
Christian influence, sufficient reason for con- 
demnation, and therefore for fear, will always 
be found. It is not thinking of the disease, 
nor of the mode in which the remedy operates, 
nor of the description given of these things 
by others, but using the remedy itself that will 
effect the cure. The gospel is the heavenly 
appointed balsam for all the wounds of sin, 
and Jesus is the great Physician ; it is to him, 
and to his testimony, therefore, as the revela- 



268 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

tion of pardon and healing, that the soul must 
be directed in all the stages of its spiritual 
career. When the glory of his character and 
work is seen, darkness of mind will be dissi- 
pated, the power of sin will be broken, genuine 
contrition will be felt, and joy and hope will 
fill the mind. It is from the Saviour and his 
sacrifice that all proper excitement in religion 
must proceed; and the attempt to produce that 
excitement by the workings of the mind on 
itself, must inevitably fail. Self-examination 
to discover the power of truth and the pro- 
gress of principle in us, is highly important; 
but when employed with a view to obtain com- 
fort under a sense of guilt, it never can suc- 
ceed. Nothing but renewed application to the 
cross can produce the latter effect. 

These sentiments are so important that they 
cannot be repeated too often, nor be too deeply 
impressed upon all, and especially upon every 
inquirer after an assurance of hope. They de- 
scribe the only way by which the perplexed 
believer, even when released from the embar- 
rassment of physical influences, can obtain a 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 269 

solid and permanent peace. It is by looking 
to Christ, not as holy in ourselves, but in order 
to be made holy; not as the whole, whose 
distempers have been cured already, but as the 
sick, who must be cured by him alone, or 
perish. We must go to him, feeling that we 
owe him ten thousand times more than we can 
pay; but that all he requires of us is to accept 
a discharge, and be happy in the enjoyment of 
this unmerited grace. In other words, we are 
only to exalt our glorious Redeemer to his 
true position as both the author and finisher 
of our faith, the alpha and omega in our sal- 
vation, and our peace is secured. Those very 
views of ourselves, our self-reproach and feel- 
ing of ill-desert, which have caused so much 
disquiet, then become the evidences of that 
spiritual change which is the beginning of 
everlasting life. It is as easy for God to for- 
give a thousand sins as one sin. If we be 
never so unworthy and so vile, yet mercy seeks 
no other qualification of its object but that it 
is necessitous, and liable to ruin; and it is a 
good way to fly to his mere grace and mercy, 
23* 



270 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

for we have undone ourselves. Poring upon 
ourselves does but increase our load. "We are 
apt to say in our distress, "Were we so and 
so mortified to the world — were our hearts so 
purified and cleansed, then we might approach 
him with some boldness, who is altogether holy." 
This is true, but yet we must first ask of 
him to make us such, in whom he may delight. 
And as we sorrowfully cast our eyes upon our 
wounds and our miseries, let us look at the 
same time to that Physician who has provided 
a remedy for us by Christ, and who can heal 
all our backslidings, and teach us to apply that 
remedy. If we are the worst and most sinful 
creatures upon earth, yet is a Saviour tendered 
to our acceptance and our choice; and if we 
will receive him, all our transgressions, how 
heinous soever, will be blotted out. We re- 
peat, then, the monition, in the midst of dis- 
tracting cares and temptations, which so much 
hinder the exercise of this faith, let us not 
forget the promised help of the Holy Spirit. 
Let us watch against the common sin of the 
desponding, who undervalue his aid, and prac- 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



271 



tically question its reality, when we are taught, 
not only that he helpeth our infirmities, but that 
he maketh intercession for us with groanings 
which cannot he uttered. 

To know that we are Christians does not 
imply that we are free from sin, but that we 
are united to Christ. Our peace, and joy, and 
hope, the fruits of this union, need not be de- 
stroyed by our imperfections, however great, 
while we cling to Him as our righteousness. 
"If we see ourselves bad enough for Christ," 
Thomas Adam says, "he sees us good enough." 
His people are safe, notwithstanding their 
doubts and fears, not because of any inherent 
power in them to hold on to the end, but be- 
cause of the grace which reigns in their calling 
and redemption, in view of which he has said, 
he will never leave them nor forsake them. 

The soul on his bosom that leans for repose, 
Is safe from the assaults of its bitterest foes ; 
That soul, tho' all hell should its vengeance awake, 
He'll never, no never, no never forsake. 

It is certainly among the deep mysteries of 
Providence, that some of the most eminent 



272 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

saints who have ever lived, should have been 
afflicted with despondency and gloom; and yet, 
as pious Rutherford remarks, "as nights and 
shadows are good for flowers, and moonlight 
and dews better than a continued sun, so is 
Christ's absence of special use, and it hath 
some nourishing virtue in it, and giveth sap 
to humility, and furnisheth a fair field for 
faith." But is there no difficulty, it may be 
asked, connected with the abandonment of a 
pious man to such a state of mental darkness 
and suffering, especially when protracted to the 
hour of death] No greater difficulty, we con- 
ceive, when view T ed as the result of physical 
disease, than in a good man's being suffered 
to linger under a torturing complaint, or to 
be laid aside by paralysis, or to be the victim 
of brutal violence, of persecution, or of fatal 
accident. We know of no promise that insures 
a truly religious man against such a trial, 
although we believe the physical influence of 
' true religion to be the very best preservative 
against those exciting causes which are likely 
to develop a predisposition to mental disease. 



ON RELIGIOUS EXRERIENCE. 273 

The history of Job is written to caution us 
against falling into the error of his friends in 
"so judging by feeble sense." It is true that 
he emerged from his complicated and unparal- 
leled afflictions; but in the cases of diseases 
incurable, except by miracle, what reason is 
there to expect an extraordinary interposition 
of divine power, in anticipation of the blessed 
cure which death will effect when the spirit 
"bursts its chains with sweet surprised" If 
Cowper was permitted to expire in apparent 
mental darkness, let it not be regarded as 
either militating against the divine goodness, 
nor as indicating the divine displeasure against 
the sufferer, should any one under similar cir- 
cumstances be allowed to close his days under 
the pressure of distemper, and to give no sign 
in death. 

It has been suggested, by way of explana- 
tion, that these sufferings of good men are 
designed to enhance the joys of heaven by 
contrast; that these light afflictions, which are 
but for a moment, will tend to ivork for us a 
far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. 



274 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

In many cases, moreover, they are made instru- 
mental in furnishing religious teachers with a 
sort of knowledge that conduces greatly to 
their usefulness, and which can be acquired 
only by experience. The apostle represents 
our High Priest as one who could be touched 
with the feeling of our infirmities, because he was 
in all points tempted as we are. Such, accord- 
ing to the Rev. Dr. Hall, was the discipline 
which gave so much "sympathy, tenderness, 
and heart-reaching power to the discourses, 
conversation, and whole intercourse" of the 
late Dr. J. W. Alexander. To qualify him for 
this service, " the wise and gracious foresight 
of Almighty God saw it necessary to lead his 
disciple, from his earliest Christian walk, in 
the path of some of the most poignant and 
overwhelming distresses that can oppress the 
human soul. Ascribe it to what immediate 
cause we may — to delicate or disordered nerves, 
to morbid sensibilities, whether physical or 
moral; to excessive intellectual excitement; to 
preternatural susceptibility to the extremes of 
enjoyment and suffering, we know from the 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



275 



result that this part of experience — familiar to 
him, in a greater or less measure, from his 
youth to his last days — was the means sancti- 
fied to the production and maintenance of that 
depth, fulness, and richness of his spiritual 
traits, which laid the foundation of, and gave 
the predominant characteristics and direction 
to, his piety and influence. It has been said 
that God can bring affliction to try and mani- 
fest the graces of his people; as the stars, that 
are a chief part of the glory of the world, are 
then most illustrious and visible when the day 
is gone; and then he makes the sun to rise 
again, that displays new objects to us." The 
rods of God are many times very sharp, but 
at last we shall find that they were " dipped in 
honey, and managed with love." The conduct 
of Providence is always wise and good, but 
very often mysterious and unfathomable; and 
in nothing more so, than in his bringing 
'abundance of his servants to heaven by the 
very gates of hell ; and in suffering Satan to 
buffet and perplex them, that they may 
triumph over him in the latter end. He 



276 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

makes them to be in great perplexities, that 
the sweet wonders of his deliverance may the 
more appear. We went through fire and through 
water, hut thou broughtest us out into a wealthy 
place? God's people should be well satisfied, 
Mr. Rogers says, that He carries them to heaven 
in the way He thinks most proper. It were 
indeed a thing very desirable to be at ease, 
to travel with light about us ; but if we must 
go through darkness, and danger, and calamity 
to heaven, let us be satisfied that his will is 
done, though we go weeping and groaning 
along thither. "When his candle shines upon 
our tabernacle, we are well enough pleased; 
but when he begins to correct and chasten us 
for a season, we murmur, and think he is a 
hard master. But out of the ruins of the 
flesh, God raises the glorious structure of the 
new creature, and from the destruction of our 
earthly comforts he causes heavenly joys to 
spring. Let us not find fault with God's pro- 
vidence, for it will turn our water into wine, 
our tears of grief into the most pleasant joys, 
and, as at the marriage of Cana, we shall have 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



277 



the best at last. Two sorts of people, Dr. 
Watts observes, will be disappointed when 
they get to heaven — the melancholy Christian, 
to find himself there, and the censorious Chris- 
tian, to find others there. But what can be 
deep or mysterious in Providence, or hard for 
us to believe, when we have once received that 
amazing doctrine of grace, the great central 
truth of revelation, that God so loved the world 
as to give Ms only begotten Son, that whosoever 
believeth in him should not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life. To many it is a subject of dis- 
tressing perplexity, that persons of unques- 
tioned piety sometimes continue to manifest 
great imperfections to the very end of their 
life. Even at the near approach of their tran- 
sition from the earthly state to a heavenly, 
their sanctification seems to be immature. 
The mind of Dr. Guthrie appears to have been 
strongly impressed by this enigma in Christian 
experience, of which he could offer no other 
solution than that a change must take place 
at the moment of death, second only to that 
at the moment of conversion. "There is much 
24 



278 INFLUENCE OF HEALTH AND DISEASE 

sin to be cast off/' he says, "like a slough, 
with this mortal flesh. Saw we the spirit at 
its departure, as Elisha saw his ascending 
master, we might see a mantle of imperfection 
and infirmity dropped from the chariot that 
bears it in triumph to the skies. I have 
thought that there must be a mysterious work 
done by the Spirit of God in the very hour of 
death, to form the glorious crown and cope- 
stone of all His other labours; and that like 
the wondrous but lovely plant which blows at 
midnight, grace comes out in its perfect beauty 
amid the darkness of the dying hour; How 
that is done, I do not know. It takes one 
whole summer to ripen the fields of corn, and 
five hundred years to bring the oak to its full 
maturity. But He, at whose almighty word 
this earth sprung at once into perfect being, 
loaded with orchards, and golden harvests, and 
clustering vines, and stately palms, and giant 
cedars — man in ripened manhood, and woman 
in her full blown charms, is able in the twink- 
ling of an eye, ere our fingers have closed the 
filmy orbs, or we have stooped to print our 



ON RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



279 



last fond kiss on the marble brow, to crown 
the work his grace began. With him, one day 
is as a thousand years, and a thousand years 
as one day. He shall perfect that which con- 
cerneth you. He shall bring forth the headstone 
thereof with shouting, crying, Grace, grace unto 
it. Now, therefore, unto Him that is able to keep 
you from falling, and to present you faultless 
before the presence of his glory with exceeding 
joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory 
and majesty, dominion and power, both now and 
ever. Amen. 



INDEX. 



A. 

PAGE. 

Abercrombie on matter and mind . . .15 
On insanity caused by religion . . . .116 

Cases of dreaming mentioned by hini . . . 157 
Alexander, Dr. Archibald, his interest in the sub- 
ject treated in this work, and counsel . . 8 
His lamented death ...... 8 

Extract from his work on Religious Experience 

concerning young preachers . . .97 

His opinion on insanity, as said to be caused by 

religion ....... 112 

His counsel, not to reason with a man against his 

views when they arise from melancholy . 183 
His account of Rev. Dr. Hall .... 84 

Counsels given in the fourth chapter of his work 

on Religious Experience .... 258 

Two cases of melancholy mentioned by him . . 259 
His opinion of Boston's " Crook in the Lot" . 102 
Alexander, Dr. James W., his interest in the subject 

of this work . - . • ♦ 8 

His counsel to watch and promote bodily health 232 
His poignant mental distress . . . .274 

Appetite, how far lawful to indulge it . . .217 
Aretaeus ........ 42 

Attention, directed to a disordered part, increases the 

disease ........ 223 

Aristotle's remark on the great men of his times . 38 
Antiochus, how affected by the passion of love . 45 
Arminius, his view of the sin against the Holy Ghost 146 
Afflictions of the soul, sometimes retributive . . 182 
intended to try the graces of Christians . 274 
Animal food, sometimes predisposes to inflammatory 
diseases — opinions of Drs. Rush, Paris, McNish, 
Arbuthnot ........ 212,213 

24* 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

Activity in doing good, remedy for low spirits . 222 
Case of a theological student . . . . 228 

Case of Dr. Lobdell . . ... .229 

Air and exercise . . . . . . . 247 

Alcoholic drinks . . . . . . . . . 211 

Atmosphere, "moral," not always a figure of speech 248 
Atmospherical air, and experiment of Dr. Woodhouse 65 
Authors referred to, but not quoted, who have written 

on subjects kindred to this . . . .10 

Arbuthnot, Dr., on the effect of vegetable regimen 214 
Augustine, Father, concerning the unpardonable sin 145 

B. 

Baglivi, on the physical influence of Lent . . 215 
Baker, Rev. Daniel . . . . . . 150 

His fear of having committed the unpardonable sin 150 
His account of a young man killed by shame . 57 
Always happy . . . . . . . . 252 

Bartolini, his mistake . . . . .65 

Barking exercise . . . . . . .59 

Baxter, Richard, troubled with doubts about his own 

salvation . . . . . .87, 266 

His advice to the desponding to seek medical aid 186 
To ascertain the cause of their doubts and troubles 180 
His opinion about casting out the devil by physic 125 
Brain, its size and power increased by mental ex- 
citement . . . . . . .31 

Of Sir Astley Cooper's patient, visible . . 32 
Of Doctor Caldwell's patient .... 32 

Of Lord Byron, of Bonaparte, of Baron Cuvier, 

of an idiot ....... 33 

Brain and Stomach, like two friends in health, and 

enemies when diseased ..... 36 

Brainerd, David, subject to low spirits ... 88 
Beef, its effect on the blood — case of the Hon. C. A. 

Murray . . . . . . .213 

Believers troubled, Baxter's advice to 186 
Brigham, Dr., his loss of appetite caused by a letter 37 
Bile, black, or melancholy . . . . .42 

Body, inexplicable structure .... . .13 

We know only a few facts concerning it . . 14 



INDEX. 



283 



PAGE. 

Body of the spiritual man should be kept under . 216 

Bodily exercise in revivals, involuntary ... 62 

Case at Cane Bidge ...... 62 

Cases in Ireland mentioned by Dr. McNaughton 63 
Book, its enlargement suggested by the friends of the 

author . . . . . . . . 8 

Not written for medical men . . . . 178 

Bonaparte lean in early life . . . . .74 

Boerhaave's experiment on epileptic patients . . 50 

Boeotians remarkable for stupidity .... 234 

Borri Franciscus, seventeenth century, his reputation 

and success ....... 66 

Boston, Bev. Thomas, a case of spiritual depression 102 
Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, his disquisitions on 

the intrinsic qualities of certain kinds of food 212 

Blues 258 

Burrows, his opinion on insanity caused by Christianity 117 

C. 

Cranioscopy . . . . . . ... 28 

Craniology . ..... . . . 28 

Chagrin, power of ...... 57 

Cassius, why such men are lean .... 74 

Why Caesar was afraid of him . . . . 74 

Charity, promoted by a study of our subject . . 106 

Calvinism, erroneously said to be the cause of insanity 126 

This the opinion of the Romanists, of Esquirol, of 

Macaulay, and of Haley .. . . 126, 127 

Case of a clergyman in New England . . . 137 * 

Calvin's opinion of the sin against the Holy Ghost . 146 

Chalmers, Dr., his opinion of this sin . 146 

Cause of our spiritual troubles should be ascertained 180 

Caesar and the affrighted shipmaster . . . 201 
Cases of mental disorder occurring within the sphere 

of the author's pastoral labours . . . 121 

Casus omissus ....... 232 

Cheyne's, Dr., opinion on the effect of parental habits 22 

His estimate of the number of nervous disorders 189 

His opinion on Satanic agency . . . . 125 

on the misery caused by nervous diseases 107 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

Cheyne, his opinion on the ignorance of good men 
of the things that affect their spiritual enjoy- 
ment 180 

His opinion on the prejudice of the world against 

the religious . . . . . .129 

Cherry Hill prisoners exempt from cholera . . 49 
Cheerful Christians, their happy influence on others 201 
Cheerfulness, commended by Dr. Maynwaring . 205 
by Seneca . . . 205 
Cecil, Rev. Mr., his letter to Mrs. Hawkes . .162 
His remark on spiritual desertion . . . 224 
on Melancthon and Luther . . 73 
The " well-known minister" referred to on page . 129 
His remark to Mr. Newton concerning Cowper . 95 
Clergymen in a "sine titulo" state .... 226 * 

Their peculiar trials, especially in advanced age . 230 
Their condition and claims not properly regarded 232 
Not to be kept from the sick-room . . .263 
Cheerful Christians, one of Baxter's four cardinal 

rules to seek their company .... 204 

Cicero quoted — his remark concerning human nature 27 
Chilo said to have died of excessive joy . . . 56 
Christians sometimes tempted to commit the mistake 

of the sons of Zebeclee ..... 169 

Their imperfection at the close of life an occasion 

of perplexity to many; explanation of Dr. Guthrie 277 
Christian experience ...... 68 

Christianity made to suffer from the physical suffer- 
ings of its professors . . . . .77 

Christ, the desponding should look to him . .260 
the Great Physician . . . . .264 

Coleridge, his remark on a man's history prior to birth 23 
Composed a poem in his sleep. . 154 

Connection of body and mind mysterious . . 14 
Cooper, Sir Astley — his patient .... 32 

Consumptive patients cheerful .... 41 

Cholera in Philadelphia . . . .49 

Consolation, one of the uses of this Treatise . . 131 
Conscience, misguided by disease .... 132 

Exemplifications ...... 133 



INDEX, 



285 



PAGE. 

Comparing experiences ...... 164 

Dr. Chalmers' letter to Mr. Andrews on the practice 155 

Comfort idolized — remarks of Dr. Harris . . 167 
of William Mason . .169 

Combe, Dr., on intemperate eating . . .215 

On insanity imputed to religion . . . .117 

Cowper, case of hypochondriasis . . . . 128 
His malady nothing to do with religion . . 128 
Happiest period of his life . . . . .93 
His letter to Rev. J. Newton . . . .89 
Description of himself in the Castaway . . 90 
His melancholy not derived from his residence at 

Olney 93 

His own opinion of the cause of his suffering . 91 
His remark concerning the Rev. Mr. Bull . . 239 
His case does not militate against the divine 

goodness ....... 273 

Relief of his mind by translating Homer and the 

works of Madame Guion . . .227 

The Unwins . . . . . . : 203 

His Journal ....... 140 

Dr. Moore's opinion of his case . . . . .94 

Dr. Cotton's judicious treatment of his malady . 94 
Account of him by Rev. J, Newton ... 95 
His melancholy erroneously ascribed to Calvinism 126 
His activity in doing good . . . . .96 

Constitution of a person closely connected with his 

religious frames . . . ... 69 

Illustrated in the case of the melancholy, timid, 

cheerful, bashful, and bold . . . 69, 70 

Counsel to the desponding sometimes attended with 

danger . . . ... . .182 

Church, Dr., his opinion on the power of faith to 

prevent and cure diseases .... 262 
Confirmed by Doctor Bell . . . ... 262 

Case of Mr. Shrubsole 262 

Opinion of Rev. Dr. Green .... 263 

Cumberland, Richard, his temperance . . . 234 

Cullen, Dr., on the bad effects of opiates . . 246 

Chrysostom, his opinion of grief . . . . 55 

Cyrus, remark of the astrologer concerning him . 71 



286 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

D. 

Dancing exercise ...... 59 

" Dark side" — some persons look at no other . . 76 
David's language concerning his make . . .13 
David, subject to seasons of depression . . .24 
Davidson's, Dr., account of bodily exercises in the 

revivals in Kentucky ... . . .59 

Design of the author . . . . . .16 

Depression, mental, periodical .... 81 

Case of Isaac Milner . . . . .85 

The sufferer cannot resist it . . . . 108 

Despair, temptation to . . . . .170 

A symptom of bodily disease .... 170 

Christians led to it by perverted views of truth 171 
Leads to a neglect of the means of grace . . 172 
Never made a human being better . . . 172 
Case mentioned by Dr. Spencer .... 172 



Despondency, religious, how to ascertain its real nature 185 
Descartes' opinion of medicine as an auxiliary to 

thought . 198 

Of the seat of the mind ..... 34 
Desponding Christians, not easily convinced of the 

mistake concerning themselves . . .100 
Such should pray for themselves, and seek an inte- 
rest in the prayers of others . . . . 265 
Case of Rev. Mr. Rogers ..... 265 
Despondency aggravated by the irritation of food and 

drink 38 

Decrees of God, Christians tempted to pry into them 171 

Dreams, dependent on our physical condition . . 153 

Their effect on the brain ..... 32 

Come through "the multitude of business" . . 154 



Affected by the state of the stomach . . .153 
Case of Baron Trenck : 153 

Case of Condorcet — of Coleridge — of President. 

Edwards . . 154 

Misapplied 155 

Case of an aged female . . . . 155 
Of a young lady in England . . . .155 
Of two clergymen mentioned by Dr. Abercrombie 157 
Shakspeare's description . . . . .159 



INDEX. 



287 



PAGE. 

Diary, extract from a preacher's account of nervous 

females of his flock . . . . 103 

Diaphragm, remark of a physician concerning dis- 
eases below it ...... 7 

Dietetic economy to be studied by persons subject to 

depression of spirits . . . . .216 

Diet, its effect on the moral faculty . . .212 
Digestion, organs of, connected with the mind . 31 

Diseases, why nervous do not more impair the physi- 
cal strength . . . . . . .19 

Diseases, change of late in their character . . 189 
Diseases of the brain and nerves in England in 1856 190 
Diaries of some eminent Christians read with pain 140 
Few willing that survivors should see their own . 141 

Dunglison, Dr 240 

Drink, Dr. Johnson's opinion . . . . 211 

Disciples in the garden of Gethsemane ... 25 
Doctrine, the subject profitable for ... 100 

Dod, Mr .111 

Drugs, stimulating or stupefying .... 245 
Opinions of Drs. Good, Cullen, and Moore, how 

they operate on the body .... 246 
Dyspepsia, Protean in its forms . . . .38 
Primarily a disease of the brain and nervous system 38 
Dry den's translation of Lucretius . . . .42 

Fable of Tityus 42 

His method to obtain swiftness of thought and 

flights of fancy 198 

E. 

Ease, lethargic, not to be indulged .... 182 
Eastburn, Mr. Joseph, and Captain Wickes . . 203 
Eating, Dr. Holland's three rules . . . .217 
How much a man may eat . . . . .218 

Opinion of Dr. Hall 218 

Sedentary men eat too much . • • 219 

Dr. Johnson's rule to enable each to decide for 

himself 221 

Habit of President Edwards . . . .221 
His remark concerning Brainerd's melancholy . 101 



288 INDEX. 



"Eating, President Edwards's power of endurance and 
remarkable abstemiousness 

His opinion concerning dreams 
Exercises, bodily, and the revival in Kentucky 

in Ireland 

Exercise and air commended by all physicians 
Exercise of body by certain Scotchmen . 

The counsels of one who had been benefitted by it 
Excess converts food into poison . s 
Empiricism shows the power of imagination 
Empiricism, private, discouraged .... 
Epileptic fits cured by fear ..... 
Esquirol ascribes Cowper's insanity to Calvinism 
English writers, older, give prominency to subjects 

such as are treated in this work . . 
Enjoyment, spiritual, connected with the quality and 

amount of our food 

F. 

Fathers, concurring with Paul on the prejudicial in- 
fluence of the body on the spirit . 
Falling exercise mentioned by Dr. Davidson 
Francia, Dr., of Paraguay . . . 
Frames, some Christians make too much of them 
Case of Mrs. Hawkes . . . 
Letter of Mr. Cecil . . . . . 
Frames should be distinguished from principles 
Familiarity with religion professional 
Faith, its efficacy in the cure of diseases 
Fear, effect on four murderers in Russia . 

Freedom from it, one cause of the safety of physi- 
cians in epidemic and contagious diseases 
Curative efficacy in cases mentioned by Doctors 
Batchelder and Rush .... 
Preventive of the monomania which is the cause of 
so many murders ..... 
Of epilepsy . 

Case in New Hampshire . . . 

Effect of Broussais' teachings . . . . 

Case of Dr. Hunter ...... 




251 
215 

64 
199 

50 
126 

179 

234 



26 
59 
81 
159 
161 
162 
162 
225 
262 
48 

49 

49 

50 
50 
50 
50 
51 



INDEX. 



289 



Fear, of a female mentioned in the French Journal 

of Medicine, who became black from fear . . 52 
Of Marie Antoinette, whose hair became white in 

a single night . . . ... .52 

Of a Sepoy in the Bengal army . . . .52 

Of the youth who robbed an eagle's nest . . 53 
Of the gambler at San Francisco . . .53 
Fears of having eaten and drunk damnation . . 171 
Foolish course of many with their melancholy friends 109 
Food, men need more than women . . . .219 

care and discrimination in the choice of . . 234 

its effect 234 

Fluctuations, spiritual ...... 162 

Case of Mrs. Hawkes ..... 161 

Case mentioned by Dr. Spencer . . . . 82 

Fuller, Andrew, depressed in mind on his death -bed 104 
Fulness of bread a predisposing cause of the vices of 

the cities of the Plain ..... 212 



G. 

Galen . . . . . . . . .42 

Greenham's, old Mr., remark ..... 99 

Green, Dr. Ashbel, his resolution not to do any harm 226 
His opinion on the causes of religious melancholy 115 
On excluding ministers from the chambers of 

the sick 263 

Grief, description of Father Chrysostom . . .55 

Of Melancthon 55 

Its effect on Philip of Spain . . . .55 

Gloominess consistent with a regenerate state . .272 
Gout, cured by a paroxysm of fear .... 49 

Ghost, Holy, sin against — Father Austin's remark 

concerning it . . . . . . . 145 

Different opinions among the schoolmen concern- 
ing its nature . . . . . .146 

Good, Dr., on the bad effects of narcotics . . 246 
His opinion concerning the spleen ... 42 
Guthrie, Dr., his opinion of the change which takes 

place in Christians at the moment of death . 277 
25 



290 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

H. 

Hair, turned white by fear . . . . .52 
Hay garth's, Dr., exposure of Perkins's tractors * 64 
Hall, Rev. Dr. James, case of melancholy . . 84 
Hall, Rev. Dr., extract from his sermon on the death 

of Dr. J. W. Alexander . . . . 274 

Hall, Dr., on air and exercise .... 247 
Cases of suffering mentioned by him . . .207 
Harsh speeches do the desponding harm . . . Ill 
Happiness, domestic, often dependent on the biliary 

and digestive organs ..... 191 
Haley's Memoirs of Cowper imperfect and disingenuous 127 
Hawkes, Mrs., extract from her diary . . .161 
Heads of great thinkers ..... 33 
Head of Bonaparte — of the insane — of Dean Swift 33 
Henry VIII. and Cardinal Woolsey . . .37 
Heart affected by the brain . . . . .38 
by the passion of love ... 45 
Heart of Dr. Hunter, disease of . . . 51 

Heart, Corvisart's lectures on .... 51 
Heart disease, Testa's opinion .... 51 
Heart diseases common in Italy and France during 

the Revolution ...... 51 

Heart-broken, cause of death of Philip V. of Spain 56 
Heart renewed, its exercises affected by the condition 

of the body ....... 69 

Healthy persons cannot understand the feelings of 

those who are subject to nervous affections . 98 
Health, counsel to promote it . . . . . 232 
Health, bodily, connection between it and spiritual 

enjoyment ....... 69 

Henry VIII . . .37 

Hippocrates on melancholy . . . . . 42 
on temperance . . . . .211 
Hope, influence in curing disease .... 45 
Experience of surgeons in the army ... 46 
Patient of Dr. Rush, Austrian army . . . 46 
Hope, M. D., Rev. M. B., case of religious melan- 
choly mentioned by him . . . .197 
Holy Spirit's operation compared to work of a sculptor 70 
Homer, his account of Tityus . . . 41 



INDEX. 



291 



PAGE. 

Hunter, Dr., cause of his disease of heart . . 51 
Hufeland, Dr., commends the ancients . . . 205 
His opinion concerning infants that eat much ani- 
mal food 213 

Hypochondriac, meaning of the word analyzed . 43 

I. 

Idiosyncrasies ....... 70 

Idiots in a Massachusetts' Charity , . 23 
Imagination, power of . . . . .64 

Exemplified in the records of empiricism . . 64 

In Dr. Haygarth's wooden tractors ... 64 

In the experiment of Dr. Woodhouse ... 65 
Patient of Bartholini . . . . .65 

Case of Franciscus Borri . . . . . 66 

Case mentioned by Selden . . . . . 67 

Insanity, not produced by religion . . . . 112 

Opinion of Dr. A. Alexander .... 113 

of Dr. George Moore .... 114 

of Dr. Ashbel Green . . . 115 

of Dr. James Johnson .... 119 

of Dr. Abercrombie .... 116 

of Burrowes, Cheyne, Combe . . . 117 
of Kirkbride, error exposed in a case re- 
ported by Dr. Kirkbride . . .120 

Irons, hot, and the epileptic patients ... 50 

Introspection, sometimes injurious to spiritual progress 163 
Ignorance of good men of things which affect their 

spiritual enjoyment . . . . .180 

Beniark on the subject by Dr. Cheyne . . 180 

J. 

James, the Apostle, his reproof of those who falsely 

ascribe their temptation to God . . . 144 

Jerks, or j erking exercise in religion ... 59 

Cases described, involuntary .... 60 
Prayer, a sedative . . . . . .61 

Johnson, Dr. Samuel, his translation of Thuanus . 227 

Johnson's, Dr. J., opinion concerning a broken heart 56 

Concerning night studies. ..... 235 

On the best sort of drinks . . . . . 211 



John the Evangelist's temperament — Dr. Mason's remarks 73 



292 



INDEX, 



PAGE, 

Job's history useful for caution . 273 
Joy, its effect on a woman in New York . ..- .56 
on certain eminent men . . . 56 
Joys of heaven heightened by contrast with present 

affliction 273 

Juventius, said to have died of joy . . . 56 
Justification and sanctification, the desponding must 

distinguish between them , . . .261 
Juvenile delinquents at Parkhurst . . . . 23 

K. 

Kant, could forget the pain of gout by an effort of 

thought 223 

Kemper, Mr., his remark about the unpardonable sin 147 
Knowledge of the subject especially important to cler- 
gymen and instructors of chiidren ... 6 

L. 

Lawrence, Dr., his system of materialism . . 28 
Lackington, Mr., his delusion .... 151 

Laughter, an aid to digestion . . . . .204 

Latin distich on preserving health .... 222 

Lady of genius, her opinion of hepatic influence on 

her mind and spirits ..... 43 

Leti G-regorius — his story of Jacob Morel and the 

Duke D'Ossuna ...... 66 

Leslie . . . . . . . .251 

Life, its enjoyment dependent on the nervous system 19 
Liver, what its use . . . ." .39 

Influence on the temperament . ... .40 

Passions and moral feelings . . .44 
Its affinities for that which is gloomy ... 40 
The cause inexplicable ..... 40 

The story of Tityus interpreted by Lucretius . 41 
Locke's opinion of the influence of association . . 201 
Love, the effect on the pulse ..... 45 

Lucretius ........ 41 

Lungs, affected by the brain . . . . .38 

Luther's, Martin, physical make .... 74 

Dr. Cox's remark concerning him ... 75 
Eev. Mr. Cecil's . . . . .73 

Luxurious habits of London — their influence* . . 216 



INDEX. 293 

PAGE. 

M. 

Manicheans of the third century, their mixture of 

Persian philosophy with Christianity . . 27 
Materialism . . . . . . .28 

Madan's, Dr., mistake of the source of Cowper's malady 104 
Mad, why worldly men, on becoming religious, are 

called madmen — Dr. Cheyne's reason . . 129 
Mab, Queen . . . ... . . 159 

Maynwaring, Dr., his Tutela Sanitatis . . . 205 
His advice to his melancholy patients . . . 205 
MacNish, Dr., of Glasgow, on animal food . .213 
McDufFs, Dr., remarks on spiritual fluctuations . 79 
McNaughton, Dr., his remarks concerning the cases 

of bodily exercises in Ireland .... 63 

Maladies, spiritual, not to be brooded over 225, 270 

Martyn, Henry, injured by overtaxing his mind . 238 
Mason, Dr., his remark concerning Peter and John 73 
Medicine, why not more cultivated among the ancients 21 
The father of it born not less than 600 years be- 
fore Christ , . . . . .21 

Medical relief in the case of a lady . - .191 
Medical advice recommended .... 186 

Melancthon on the effect of grief . . . .55 

Melancholy, meaning of the term . . . .42 

Religious, case described . .136, 192 
Wrong to nurture it . . .259 

Not to reason against it . . 183, 257 
Remark of Dr. Alexander . . .183 
Melancholy Christians misjudged .... 107 

The occasion of prejudice against religion . . 77 
Their sufferings often produced by physical causes 78 
Conceal their distress — case of Captain Wickes . 203 
Means of grace neglected by desponding Christians 172 
Mental disorder — four cases mentioned by the author 121 
Mind, power of a disquieted, in the case of a Neapo- 
litan merchant ...... 66 

Mind, affected by the organs of the body . . 31 
collapse of, occasioned by giving up business 223 
* Ministers should understand the influence of physical 

causes ........ 98 

25* 



294 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

Miller, Rev. Dr. Saniuel, on night study . . 237 
on the use of tobacco . 240 
Milner, Rev. Isaac, his maladies more than forty years 85 
His letter to Mr. Wilberforce .... 85 
Moral qualities hereditary . . . . .135 
Moral Therapeutics . . . . . .68 

N. 

Narcotics, their injurious effects .... 245 

Nerves, derivation of the word . . . . 17 
Channels of communication between mind and body 17 
Omnipresence in the animal fabric . . .17 
Sensation caused by touching them . . .18 
Sympathy — Nervous System . . . .18 
Wonderful that they are not oftener deranged . 19 
Not mortify so soon as other parts of the body . 19 
Nervous force, its nature . . . . .19 
Not electric power . . . . 20 
Way of communication with brain and spinal mar- 
row, not known . . . . .20 
Notion of Hippocrates and Galen . . .20 
Knowledge of this fact not important . . .20 
Morbid results of this connection . . .20 

Nervous diseases, the most numerous class . .189 
How far we are accountable for the feelings they 

produce . . . . .... 134 

Newton, Rev. John, his remark to Cecil about Cowper 95 
Case of his wife ...... 123 

His remark on frames . . . . .162 

Nitrous oxide and Professor Woodhouse ... 65 

O. 

Orme's remark on the means of obtaining comfort in 

spiritual distress ...... 267 

Occupation needful to the desponding . . . 222 

P. 

Paley, Archdeacon, on the spleen . . . . 43 
His remarks on the goodness of God, written 

under the pangs of the stone . . . 210 

Parental habits, effect on their offspring - .. .23 
Testimony furnished by prisons and almshouses . 22 



INDEX. 



295 



PAGE. 

Paul, description of conflict between body and spirit 26 
Passions, power in disturbing the healthful action of 

the body .45 

Park and the flower in the desert . . . . . 47 
Parish, Sir Woodbine, account of a gentleman exe- 
cuted for murder in Buenos Ayres ... 82 

His account of the north wind of Buenos Ayres . 81 
Payson, Dr., his physical conformation and tendency 

to depression . . . . . . .88 

Remark concerning his biography . . . 140 

His excessive abstinence ..... 214 
Prayer, desponding Christians afraid to pray . . 171 
Paul the Apostle's method of promoting cheerfulness 206 
Paris, Dr., on the free use of animal food . .212 
Page, Harlan ....... 230 

Playfair 250 

Paul the Apostle, his temperament . .72 
Phrenology . . . . . . . . 28 

Presentiment of Dean Swift ..... 33 

Preachers, young, too many not qualified to direct 

the doubting conscience ..... 97 

Preachers, counsels of Dr. Rice to such as are trou- 
bled with mental depression .... 252 

Preaching, modern, a defect in .... 98 

Pearson's, Mr., remark concerning Mr. Hay . . 139 
Peering inward on ourselves . . . 164, 261, 265 
Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk .... 249 

Peter, Simon, his natural temperament . . . 72 
Pious men, why they should be permitted to fall into 

a state of mental darkness . . . .272 

No promises that insure them against such a trial 272 
Poring upon ourselves . . . . . .270 

Sentiments of Mr. Rogers . . . . 270 

Providence, one of its deep mysteries . . . 271 
Plutarch's remark about the Boeotians . . . 234 

Of the reaction of the mind upon the body . . 199 
Physical evils mistaken for moral affections . . 98 
Physical influence, doctrine of, capable of being 

perverted . . . . . . 182 

Not intended to be an apology for sin, or perverse- 

ness of any sort . . . . . .131 



296 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

Physical influence, much in the doctrine to comfort 

the suffering ....... 136 

May incite us to watch against our besetting sins 141 
Physicians, not every one competent to prescribe for 

the desponding . . . . . .187 

What they can do ..... 187 

Too often ignorant of the reciprocal action of mind ' 



and body ....... 187 

Cannot read the book of the heart . . . 187 
Need moral qualifications . . . . .264 

E. 

Religion never causes insanity .... 112 

Rest of mind and body necessary .... 235 

Case of a theological student . . . .236 

Ridgely, Dr., on the unpardonable sin . . 149 

Rice, Dr. N. L., his excellent remarks . . . 252 

Rolling exercise, Dr. Davidson's account of . . 59 

Rogers, Rev. Timothy . . . . . . 75 

His description of religious melancholy . . 76 



His advice about the choice of a physician . .188 
Several cases of religious despondency mentioned 

by him 202 

His instruction to the desponding to look to Christ 261 
His own relief in answer to prayer . . . 265 
His book a monument of his deliverance . . 265 
His remarks on God's way of taking Christians to 

heaven . . . . . . . 276 

Rousseau's hypochondria, how promoted . . . 199 
Rush, Dr., his hopeful patient 47 
His essay on the' influences of physical causes on 

the moral faculty . . . . 101 

His opinion that moral qualities are hereditary . 135 
On the free use of animal food . . . .212 

On the moral qualifications necessary for a physician 264 
Himself an instance of despondency without sus- 
pecting the cause . . . . .101 

Rutherford, his remark . . . . . .272 

Russel's Seven Sermons, an extract from them . 150 
Running exercise in revivals, Dr. Davidson's account 59 



INDEX. 



297 



PAGE. 

s. 

Sacred writings, furnish little instruction concerning 

the union of soul and body ... 23 
Sanctification to be distinguished from justification . 261 
Savages know little of nervous diseases . . .21 
Saul, the king's, distressing affection ... 24 
Stackhouse, his opinion of Saul's case ... 24 
Saviour, the, recognizes the influence of the natural 

over the spiritual part . . . . .25 

Stratonice loved by Antiochus .... 45 

Shame, case mentioned by Rev. Dr. Baker . . 57 
Satanic agency, mistake of imputing to it what is 

dependent on bodily disease .... 144 

Case of Rev. John Newton's wife . . . 123 
Cases of Bunyan and Martin Luther . . . 124 
Standard of piety, to adopt one that is false, a tempta- 
tion of desponding Christians .... 151 

Shakspeare's account of dreaming .... 159 

Self-examination, does not always aid us in obtaining 

comfort from guilt . . . . . .266 

Spleen, what its use — opinion of Dr. Good . . 42 
Opinion of Archdeacon Paley .... 43 

Supposed connection with low spirits ... 42 

Selden's Table-Talk 67 

Secretary of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Paris 105 
Reproof of his medical brethren for looking at the 

organic effects of disease instead of its cause 106 
Sleep, M. G-uizot's faculty for .... 237 

Science, its testimony to the reciprocal influence of 

mind and body . . . . . . 27 

Sin, unpardonable, opinion about it since the Re- 
formation . . . . . . .146 

In many cases the fear of having committed it a 

symptom of bodily disease .... 147 

Case of a young man who for twelve years sup- 
posed himself to be guilty of it . . . 148 
Scripture, sudden recurrence of alarming passages 

often misused . . . . . .151 

Spiritual desertion imagined . . . . . 168 

Spirituality of mind not necessarily connected with 

theological studies . . . . . - 225 



298 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

Spiritual depression periodical . . . .81 
Case mentioned by Dr. Spencer, of Brooklyn, N. Y. 82 

Of Mr. Cecil 83 

Of a venerable clergyman . . . . .85 

Spirits, low, Dr. Bice's opinion concerning the cause 253 
Swift, Dean, his mental imbecility in latter part of 

his life ...... .33 

Soul, known only by its attributes or qualities . . 14 
Stomach, its action on the mind . . . .35 

Sophocles, said to have died of excessive joy . . 56 
Society, suitable, recommended .... 200 

Schoolmen of the Middle Ages .... 146 

Solomon on cheerfulness . . . . .210 

Smoking produces cancer in the mouth . . . 244 
Affection of the heart ..... 240 

Shuttleworth, Mr. Kay, his examination of the juve- 
nile delinquents at Parkhurst .... 23 

Sufferers from depression not able to apply the truth 

their case requires — Case of Dr. Bush . . 101 
Case of Bev. Thomas Boston .... 102 

Case of Bev. Thomas Scott . . . . . 104 

Subject of this book useful for correction . . 112 
Superstition, cause of insanity .... 115 

Sunshine, perpetual, not to be expected . . 142 

Sufferers mentioned by Dr. Hall . . . . 207 

Study at unseasonable hours . . . . . 235 

Opinion of Dr. James Johnson . . . .235 

Of the author of a Doctor's Manual for the 

Nervous . . . . ... 236 

Case of a theological student .... 236 

Opinion of Dr. S. Miller . . . . .237 

Sympathy in the organs of the body . . .18 
The fact well known .... . . 36 

Sympathy of the mind defined . . . .57 

Exemplified in yawning, wheezing, asthma, cough 58 
Sympathy, morbid and imitative . . . .58 

Physical effects seen in revivals of religion . . 59 
Its- power illustrated in the success of empiricism 64 
Sympathy, too little felt for persons subject to ner- 
vous affection . . . . 109 



INDEX. 



PAGE 

Sydenham's estimate of the proportion of fevers to 

other diseases ...... 189 

Dr. Cheyne's estimate ..... 189 

Estimate of Trotter 190 

T. 

Talma, died of excessive joy . . . . .56 

Tampering with drugs discouraged . . . 199 

Rousseau's confession in regard to himself . . 199 

Treatises on kindred subjects numerous . . . 8 

Temptations of the desponding .... 144 

The power of temptation derived from ourselves . 144 
Temptation of some to think that they have commit- 
ted the sin against the Holy Ghost . . . 145 
Temptation of the desponding to watch their fluc- 
tuating frames . . . . . .159 

Case of Rev. Richard Baxter .... 266 

Remarks of Mr. Orme 267 

Treatises on the subject of this volume not called for 

by many . * . . . . . 179 

Temperance ....... 211 

Tgedium vitae, a panacea for . . . .227 

Tityus, the fable concerning him explained . . 41 

Tobacco, its injurious effects ..... 239 

Candidate for the ministry rejected for using it . 239 

Case of Rev. Mr. Bull 239 

King James the First, his Counterblast against 

Tobacco 239 

Edict against it in the time of Elizabeth . . 239 

Cases mentioned by Dr. Dunglison . . . 240 
Sentiments of Rev. Dr. Miller . . . 240, 243 

Excessive use of it by theological students . . 240 

A sin against our neighbour .... 242 

Deaths in Germany caused by its use . . . 244 

Its effect on the mind . . . . . 245 

Its effect on the mouth in causing cancer . . 244 

u. 

Unpardonable sin ...... 145 

Uses of knowledge on the subject of this book for 

doctrine . . . . . . . 100 

Urquhart injured by excessive study . . . 238 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

V. 

Virgil, quoted ....... 41 

w. 

Waterloo, case of a soldier wounded there . . 31 
Watchfulness against melancholy . . . .259 
Water, the best drink according to Hippocrates and 

Dr. Johnson . . . . . . 211 

Watts, his remark concerning the disappointments of 

heaven ........ 277 

Wellington, Lord, his physical constitution . 74 
Wretchedness of a state of spiritual despondency . 136 
Writings, sacred, why give so little instruction on the 

subject of this volume . . . . .23 
They contain exemplifications of its truth . . 24 
Wind, north, its effect in Buenos Ay res . . .81 
Wife, deranged, mentioned by a minister of London 130 
Wickes, Captain, a case of prolonged melancholy . 203 
White, Henry Kirke, depressions of mind . .238 
Woodhouse, Dr., his experiment to show the power 

of imagination . . . . . .65 

Work on the subject of this volume called for . 16 
Woolsey, Cardinal . . . . . .37 



Z. 

Zimmermann, Dr., his account of the death of Philp V., 

King of Spain . . . .- .55 



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